The 2011 Nestbox Diary

June (part 2)

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7 June - A bright start to the day (14C at 8.30am), although there is a threateningly dark cloud to the west as I write this (at 11am). There was a very light shower just before noon but the rest of the day remained dry if quite cloudy, and with a high temperature of 18C  in the early afternoon.

Details from the two Swift families will be added later, but first a couple of encouraging images from the other two boxes -

 It was before 6am when SW-ri had a visitor again, and with both breeding pairs present in their boxes it was confirmation that this is a 'new bird on the block'.

It stayed for a few hours and I see it is in there again at 11am.

However, that isn't the end of the morning's developments. As this image shows, at 9.47am we has another Swift visitor, this time in SW-lo.

On its first visit it remained right by the entrance, as it did the next time it appeared a few minutes later,

but then it returned twice more over the next quarter of an hour to check out the back of the box - and the camera!

As it was in some ways the most straight-forward box today I'll start with the details from SW-up. The day started with the first departure at 4.49am, a trip that lasted just seven minutes before the bird returned. The second bird headed out at 5.33am, and when it returned the cycle of change-overs commenced, with sixteen recorded through the rest of the day. The final return of the day was at 9.45pm.

In Sw-le the day started a few minutes later when the male left at 4.58am. On his return at 5.18am the pair remained together until the female took her leave at 8.03am. Her return at 8.56am triggered their first change-over of the day.

While I'll say more afterwards about the activities in SW-ri and SW-lo, the presence of 'new' Swifts imposed itself on SW-le at  just before 10.10am when the male, who was sitting at the time had to fight off an intruder in a savage tussle that lasted nearly three minutes, and which managed to avoid the eggs!

In this image you can see the pair holding claws. while they also are engaged in using their beaks on each other.

Once that intruder was removed the male returned to the nest cup and continued as if nothing had happened.

When his partner arrived at 10.21am (with feathers) he paid her a great deal of attention and didn't leave until 10.38am. After that the change-over sequence resumed with seven more taking place by the end of the day, plus one time when the male left twice in succession, and once when the female did the same - on each of her returns she brought in a large quantity of downy feathers.

The evening wasn't straight-forward. The female left at 6.13pm and at 8.14pm the male once again had to deal with a 'stranger' at the entrance, although this time that is as far as it got, and the incident was over in no more than a quarter of a minute. Once again he returned to the eggs, but when the female hadn't returned by 9.16pm he left the box.

The eggs were left unattended for 22 minutes before he returned at 9.38pm, followed by the female two minutes later.

As I mentioned at the start of this entry, activities in SW-ri started early today, with a Swift entering the box at 6.04am, remaining in there until 8.14am. It returned between 9.24 - 10.05am, and 11.08 - 11.47am.

While it didn't appear during the afternoon, this evening it returned to the box at 9.24pm and it is roosting in there tonight.

The visitor to SW-lo made five brief visits between 9.44 - 10.05am and has not returned again today.

8 June - Third egg hatches in SW-up.

A grey but dry start to the day and cooler, with a temperature of 12C at 8am.

When I switched on the monitor I saw what appeared to be a pair of Swifts huddled together in SW-ri, raising hopes that we now had a third pair of Swifts in residence.

Unfortunately, hopes were dashed when a few minutes later it became clear that rather than a partnership this was two rivals locked together during a pause in another wrestling match! Looking back through the recording I see that the fight began after the overnight resident left at 7.03am and returned twenty minutes later.

On its return a second Swift followed it in (or was it the other way around?) and the resulting squabble lasted for the next 41 minutes.

Once one of the Swifts was ejected the other left four minutes later. One of them returned at 8.18am and stayed for 34 minutes without incident. However, at 9.21am two birds followed each other into the box and once again the first in turned on the other. This time the fight lasted less than a minute, and the victor remained in the box for another hour before leaving.

There were no further visits during the day until  a Swift entered the box at 9.15pm and settled down for the night.

Getting back to the family groups, I believe that in SW-up the third egg hatched early this morning, before 7am, although at lunchtime I'm still waiting for a clear view to confirm that all is well.

The first departure from SW-up was at 6.16am, and that bird's return some twenty minutes later prompted the first of six change-overs during the morning, one of which was prolonged with both birds staying in the box between 7.23 - 8.52am. Four more followed during the afternoon and six during the evening.

During those change-overs I was able to confirm that there were three chicks, but it wasn't until 9.36pm that I was able to see them clearly when both parents were absent from the box for around ten minutes.

You can see the variation in size between the first to hatch on the left, the second in the middle, and this morning's addition on the right.

I've included the three eggs at the same scale - it's clear just how much the first chick has grown already!

The parents returned for the night at 9.43pm and 9.47pm

In SW-le it was a very quiet morning with very little activity, possibly down to the cooler conditions today. The female was first out at 5.19am, back six minutes later, with the male not heading out until 7.08am. he was back in the box at 8.12am and then the pair settled down for the next two hours.

The female left again at 10.29am, the male remaining in the box until 12.58pm before he left too. The eggs  left unattended until  his partner returned twelve minutes later with a large feather, the first brought in today. Soon after her arrival it started raining quite heavily (outside temperature dropped by a couple of degrees to below 15C) and was still doing so when the male returned 'empty-beaked' seven minutes later.

The rain continued and the female didn't leave until 1.41pm. The the male sat on the eggs for a while (25 minutes) and then once again he left, and this time both parents were away from the nest for just under an hour.  During the evening there were a couple more change-overs before the eggs were left unattended for a third time today, for a further 15 minutes when the pair left together at 9pm.

The pair returned together but the male appeared restless and he left again three more times before he finally entered the box for the night at 9.46pm.

9 June - A cool (12C at 8am, 15C at 10am), breezy morning with the occasional sunny period.

We are now in the 'hatching window' for the eggs in SW-le but with no sign of a chick by 11am.

For this pair the day started with the male leaving at 4.39am. When he returned fifteen minutes later his partner showed no sign of wanting to leave, but it wasn't until 7.55am that he left again. In fact he made two more trips out before the female finally took to the air at 10.20am.

When she returned at 10.46am a change-over took place, followed by five more over the next ten hours. The end of the day was a bit 'messy', with the male taking two trips out before the pair left at 9.25pm (female) and 9.39pm (male) to leave the eggs unattended for seven minutes before they both returned for the night at 9.46pm, with both eggs still intact.

Over in SW-up we had another glimpse of the chicks when the sitting parent decided to readjust its position around just after 9am.

Looking closely at them the variation in size and development seems clearer this morning, with the feather tracts on the eldest now visible as dark patches and lines.

With the last to hatch being so much smaller than its siblings I wonder how well it will fair in the competition for attention as food is brought into the nest.

Again, I'm including the image of the eggs to give an idea of scale - a Swift egg measures 25 x 16mm.

The first bird out of SW-up left at 5.32am , staying out for just seven minutes before the pair settled again for the next two hours or so before one left at 7.52am. When this bird returned just under ten minutes later the first of twelve change-overs took place before 5pm.

Then, after one of the pair had left at 5.03pm, its partner waited until 6.25pm before it too left the box, although the eggs were unattended for only a minute on this occasion. The second bird returned at 7.19pm and three more change-overs took place before 9pm. Then at 9.12pm the nest was left empty once more, for six minutes this time.

And they didn't settle when they returned at 9.18/9.24pm. They both left together just a minute later and stayed away a further six minutes. Finally they settled down for the night after one of them had left twice more!

I took advantage of one of the times they were away from the nest to grab a couple more images to show that the chicks appear to be quite healthy at this stage, with emphasis on the youngest chick.

Across in SW-ri today was quiet, with no repeat of the encounters of yesterday. The overnight resident left at 4.34am but returned four times before disappearing for the rest of the day at 9.53am. It was back in the box for the night by 8.51pm, very early when compared with the two families!

10 June - Another disappointing day with occasional showers and when the temperature rarely went above 12C, and the maximum temperature of 15C was achieved only when there were breaks in the cloud - not a good day for flying insects. Thank goodness we went to Cornwall earlier than usual this year!

Despite the cool conditions the Swifts in SW-up seemed to find food for their offspring. Their day started a bit later than usual with the first bird out at 6.02am for just seven minutes. It's partner waited until just before 7am before it had its first flight of the day, this one lasting eighteen minutes. Its return initiated the first of eight change-overs before noon.

The sequence was broken at 12.28pm when the chicks were left unattended for sixteen minutes. During the afternoon there were three more change-overs before the chicks were left alone for half an hour from just after 4pm, and during the evening there were three more periods when both parents were away from the nest, totaling fifty minutes before the day's activities came to an end at 9.27pm as they returned to the box within a minute of each other.

Here are the chicks during one of those 'alone' times this evening.

The second chick (middle in picture) is now showing the feather tracts, and looking much more like its older sibling. The youngest chick has a great deal of catching up to do over the next couple of weeks.

As this very poor quality image shows, the youngest chick does get a share of what food is brought in.

I hope that the weather improves to ensure that supply of insects will be sufficient for all three to make it to fledging.

In SW-le the adults are still waiting for their first egg to hatch. Their day also started late, with the male going out at 7.41am for half an hour, and then again for another twelve minutes. It was 9.04am before the female left for the first time. The male sat on the eggs until 11.36am before he left too.

His partner returned at 12.19pm after the eggs had been left unattended for 43 minutes. This was the only time today that both parents were absent, and during the rest of the day just four change-overs took place before the day ended with the male returning at 9.28pm - with both eggs still intact.

In SW-ri the overnight resident left at 6.03am, and then returned four times, spending a total of 1¾ hours in the box before leaving for the rest of the day at 9.43am. This evening it returned for the night at 7.27pm.

11 June - a much better day after a cold start. Overnight the temperature dropped to 8C (at 8am) but rose to 18C during a sunny afternoon with just a light westerly breeze.

My original estimate for the hatching of the eggs in SW-le was 10 - 12 June, and now over half way through that window the eggs were still intact at 9pm.

There was an important development this evening -

When the Swift that has been spending recent nights in SW-ri returned to roost it brought a new partner in with it, and they have settled down for the night, making this the first time that we have had six adults present.

This is great news. It will be interesting to see if they behave as did the other two pairs when they first moved in in 2000.

One thing to note is that one of the pair is carrying a Crataerina paillida, the parasitic flat-fly species specific to the Common Swift. The box was 'clean' and I hadn't seen one on the roosting bird so I must suspect that the carrier is the new arrival.

These flies are present on both the nesting pairs despite my taking care to remove any pupae present in the boxes before the nesting season began.

In SW-ri the Swift that stayed last night left the box for the first time at 5.51am. It then spent over three hours in the box during six visits made before 11am. When it left again at 11.01am it stayed away for the rest of the day. In the evening it reappeared at 7.58pm, staying of just over an hour this time. Finally, when it returned for the night at 9.26pm it was followed in by the second bird shown above, the sounds of their arrival causing some stress to the female sitting in SW-le.

As they continue to wait for the hatching of their eggs the pair in SW-le brought in more feathers today. The cold morning meant a late start, with the male not leaving until 7.41am. When he returned six minutes later the pair snuggled down again and it was the male who left again at 8.44am. It was a few minutes after he returned at 9.36am that the female headed out. That was the first of six change-overs taking place today, with feathers brought in each time.

The pattern was broken after the female returned at just after 8pm the pair settled down together for half an hour before the female headed out again at 8.38pm. The male (who had been sitting since 7.48pm) also left at 9.06pm and the eggs, still intact, were left unattended for nine minutes until the female returned for the night at 9.15pm. As I mentioned above, she became quite agitated for a few minutes when there was activity heard in the adjacent SW-ri, but she settled quickly when her partner returned at 9.40pm.

In SW-up the day started even later with the first departure not until 8.25am, with the first change-over coming at 8.52am. Six more took place before the chicks were left unattended (26 minutes) for the first time at 1.38pm. That was followed by three more change-overs before they were left alone for 52 minutes form 4.48pm. During the evening there were four more change-overs seen, although these were interspersed with four more periods with neither parent present before the parents returned for the night at 9.39pm and 9.43pm.

Over the course of the day food had been brought in to the chicks nineteen times.

Here are the chicks as seen at around 5.30pm, with the eldest at the bottom of the picture.

12 June - Not the best of starts to the day, with rain and a temperature of no more than 11C at 10am. The rest of the day was little better, with low cloud and non-stop drizzle and rain. The temperature didn't rise above 12C all afternoon, although it did manage to creep up a degree in the evening as the wind swung round from south south-east to southerly.

The miserable conditions were reflected in the low level of activity in both SW-up and SW-lo. Today there was more coming and going in SW-ri!

In SW-up the day started early enough when the first bird left at 6.32am, returning three minutes later. The next departure was at 6.39am, returning at 6.46am, and another at 9.46am lasted over an hour, with the Swift returning at 10.52am. At 12.41pm both birds left, leaving the chicks unattended for the longest period yet, although they received a great deal of attention on the first parent's return at 2.42pm. It's partner didn't reappear until 4.48pm. After that there was just one more outing by one bird (6.04 - 7.39pm) before the pair retired for the night.

In SW-le there was even less activity. First bird out was the male at 6.09am, for thirteen minutes. He left again at 8.09am for just seven minutes. Then the female went out twice, first at 9.44am, returning fifteen minutes later, and then at 11.02am. This time she stayed out over an hour and returned with a feather (in the rain?!) at 12.09pm. As soon as she settled the male left for what turned out to be the last outing of the day, and the longest, returning at 4.18pm.

At various times afterwards one of the pair would go to the entrance(exit) and look out but neither left again all evening.

As for the eggs, they were still intact when I caught a brief glimpse of them at just after 8pm.

In SW-ri there was a somewhat slower start, with the pair leaving together at 7.37am. After that they visited the box either singly or together throughout the day, with the final arrivals for the night occurring at 5.37 and 8.06pm.

There was one hiccup during the morning. At 9.50am both birds left together. Two minutes later two Swifts followed each other into the box and immediately started fighting. The encounter lasted less than a minute and both left. At 10am the resident pair (presumably) returned and stayed for over an hour with no aggression at all between them.

I have to assume that the fight was between one of the pair and an intruder.