The 2012 Nestbox Diary

May (part 1)

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A reminder of the monitored nest boxes on our house at mybitoftheplanet - 



The original Swift boxes at the eastern end of our north-facing wall. Only the upper box has been used for nesting. Both boxes are equipped with cameras and microphones

Attached to the boxes is a speaker enclosure used to broadcast Swift calls and designed to deflect most of the sound upwards away from my neighbours' house.

Later this year I may replace these nest boxes with a neater side by side arrangement.





This pair is at the western end of the wall. The boxes were originally put up for Starlings. Both boxes are equipped with cameras and microphones.








New for 2012 this group of Swift boxes is on the front of the house, facing East. They will not have cameras installed permanently but in boxes 1 - 3 there is a small hole into the loft to allow for a microphone or small camera to be used on a temporary basis when nesting takes place.




Also on the front way is this trio of artificial House Martin nests. Not used since a complete brood died of starvation during bad weather in 2007. However, the boxes are equipped with cameras and monitoring continues each year.





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1 May - April may have ended with sunshine but May starts dull damp after heavy rain and a thunder storm overnight.

A bit of confusion this morning - Video recording started at 5am and at just before 6am two Sparrows appeared from under the dome of their nest, the mother and just one chick, which is still in the nest at 9.45am.

Did the other chick fledge yesterday evening? Or has it died? I can't see any fledglings in the garden this morning, and there is no sign in the driveway of a chick having fallen out of the box. Later today I'll check yesterday evening's recording again, just in case that gives a clue as to what has happened.



By lunchtime the weather was improving and when we returned from a family birthday get-together this evening around 8pm the sky was cloudless, and there were at least four Swifts flying around over the neighbourhood, from time to time catching the light of the setting sun.

At the same time the second Sparrow chick and its mother were in residence in SW(le) and its father has settled for the night in his usual spot in SW(up).






Then, at 8.27pm the Sparrows' tenancy of the box came to an abrupt end as the first of our Swifts entered SW(le) and 'joined' the two Sparrows under the dome of the nest. There were a few loud squeals from under the straw before the box fell quiet for the next few minutes.










Just after 8.30pm the female Sparrow escaped from under the straw and after dashing about the box she headed out, leaving her chick next to the swift.







By 9pm the Swift had settled down for the night, and as far as I can tell the chick is still in there with it.

Tomorrow morning, if I cannot be sure of the fate of the chicks, I'll need to check the box to ensure that there are no dead birds present. As it will mean having to pull back the straw of the dome I may decide to remove the nest completely.






I wondered how long the Swift would stay in the shelter of the dome - at 9.40pm it climbed onto the top of the nest and as I write this ten minutes later it is busy preening.

There was no sign of movement from the Sparrow chick.

2 May - A grey morning in more than one sense. After checking the early morning recording and seeing no sign of the second Sparrow chick, I checked the nest and found it dead at the back of the nest cup. Shortly afterwards I found another dead Sparrow chick in our garden, under the Buddleia, so it looks like the early start for the Sparrows didn't work out after all.

To remove the chick from the nest I needed to cut away part the dome of the nest  and  decided to  remove all of it, but leave the base for the Swifts to use (and still useable by the Sparrows, although that is now unlikely).





The Swift left the box at 7am but at 6.30am it was joined briefly by a very noisy male Sparrow that is not quite ready to give up on this box! It will be interesting to see his reaction to my having cut away the dome.









Well, it doesn't seem to have had too great an effect with both the male and female Sparrows entering the box since I moved the ladder away from it.

The chick I removed from SW(le) showed clear signs of having been pecked at repeatedly.









On a more optimistic note on what has been a dull, overcast but dry day I have finally got around to putting up the new Swift nest boxes, next to the House Martin nests (no sign of Martins overhead so far).

I do not intend to install cameras in this set, but I have drilled holes into the loft from three of the boxes so that I can use a bullet camera from time to time to look inside them. I need to go up into my loft to check whether or not it will be possible to drill a similar hole into the left-hand box.

This evening it seems as though the Sparrows have bowed to the inevitable and are roosting together in SW(up).
It's interesting to see that rather than the male occupying his usual spot by the entrance, he has retreated to a corner below the camera while his partner has taken over 'sentry duty'. This image was captured at 8pm.









And at just after 8.20pm the Swift (slightly wet as it has started raining!) returned to SW(le).

Last year a Swift entered this box for the first time on 5 May, and was the second Swift to arrive. The first moved into SW(up) on 3 May - the Sparrows should be prepared to move again!

3 May - The miserable weather continues with an overcast and decidedly damp day with a low of 7C and a high of 9C - it is 8C at 9pm.






This morning the Sparrows left SW(up) at 6.40am and the Swift left SW(le) at 8.50am. They visited both boxes during the day and around 2pm they mated again in SW(up).











The Swift returned to SW(le) at around 5.15pm and appeared to be settling down for the night. However, it became restless around 7.15pm and left the box at 7.20pm and has not returned.

The sparrows are back in SW(up) tonight, the male arriving first at 7.10pm with his partner entering the box six minutes later. The pair assumed the same positions as last night once a bit of preening had been carried out.







Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm going the see if I can re-position the camera that has been monitoring the outsides of the House Martin nests so that it can instead  'watch' the new Swift boxes. I may also check the camera in SW(lo) as the image appears to be a bit soft - the lens or the sensor may need cleaning.

4 May - The overnight absence of the Swift from SW(le) seems to have spawned an renewed optimism in the Sparrow pair that they can reclaim 'their' nest box. This morning when I switched on the monitor at just after 7am  the pair were in there, with lots of noisy interaction, tugging at straw and  more mating.




In this image, captured just before 9am, shows the female settled down in what had been the nest cup for their first brood. Although the pair left shortly afterwards it makes me think that egg laying may take place at any time.










During the morning I moved the camera from watching the Martin boxes to watching the Swift boxes instead. For the time being at least the new view will remain part of this quad image as I don't have the facilities to record it separately.

While I won't be installing cameras in the new boxes I may install a microphone in one of them to help prompt me should any birds start visiting them.

I had to delay moving the camera for a while after a female Sparrow decided to give all three House Martin nests repeated close inspections, removing bits and doing a couple of shuffles as she did so.









This evening the Sparrow pair returned to SW(up) at 7.22pm but so far there has been no sign of the Swift returning. Just after 7pm I spent some fifteen minutes looking up at the clouds but didn't see a single Swift, and tonight there are none in the boxes.

5 May - Another grey day, with some drizzle during the morning.

There was only a little bit of Sparrow activity seen in the boxes during the morning. They left SW(up) at 6.15am and spent a short time in SW(le) just over an hour later.





A Swift arrived in SW(le) at just after 11am, and left again fifty five minutes later. I suspect that this is not the Swift that arrived on 2 May - probably its partner.








I'm drawn to this conclusion after checking images of both birds. The first Swift to arrive had light blotches on the back of its head but these seem to be absent from today's arrival.

Unfortunately, the glum conditions, together with the low levels of IR lighting in the box are not really compatible with decent image quality, so I need there to be a bit more brightness.



If this is indeed the partner, I wonder whether or not the first Swift will reappear. And what will happen if it doesn't? Would the second bird find a new partner to use this box?

The day before yesterday I was talking to one of the neighbours I put up a Swift box for a couple of years ago and she asked me if she should do anything to the boxes before the Swifts arrived. I said to simply wait, and as we talked a pair of Swifts flew over us. When I see her next I may need to tell her that her wait is over - I think I caught a glimpse of a Swift entering one of her boxes this morning, although I need to see it again to confirm that I wasn't mistaken.

The temperature didn't get above 9C all day, but this evening at least the cloud base rose significantly and there were a few breaks in the cover. However, I saw no Swifts in the air over us while outside around 8pm.

However, the Sparrows having returned to SW(up) at 7.37pm, more significantly a single Swift returned to roost in SW(le) at around 8.20pm.

It has a light spot just above the beak, so perhaps there is just the one individual here so far.



Finally, the new boxes received their first inspections before 8am this morning, first by a single Starling and then a pair, checking out all four entrances although they made no attempt to enter any of the boxes. Hopefully the entrance size of 30x65mm, along with a wood thickness of nearly 25mm will deter them from using these boxes.

And while the Starlings came and went, a female Sparrow visited a couple of the House Martin nests, doing a bit more cleaning.

6 May - Another largely dry but grey day, and cold. It was just 5C at 8am and didn't get above 8C during the day. This evening the cloud cover started to break up and by 8.15pm the sky was almost cloudless, which could have an interesting effect on the temperature tonight (it is 7C at 9pm).

The Sparrows left SW(up) at 6.30am, returning for the night at 7.45pm. The Swift left SW(le) at just after 8.30am, and returned to roost at 8.37pm. I spent a lot of time outside this evening as the skies cleared but saw no Swifts until just a single bird flew over at 8.25pm - presumably 'our' individual.

7 May - At 7am this morning the skies were largely blue, with bright sunshine helping to warm up our lounge - encouraging. Unfortunately, by breakfast at around 9am the grey clouds had returned on a south-easterly breeze and by the late morning it had turned distinctly damp, with the drizzle continuing into the afternoon.

However, all was not lost. By 2pm the cloud cover, blown along by what had become a strong south south-westerly breeze, was starting to break up and over the next couple of hours we had sunny spells, enough to bring out the wasps and bees, and hopefully the insects that the Swifts need.

Despite that improvement I saw just one Swift over a period of an hour spent in the garden. Mind you, I also saw my first House Martin of the year. Last year a pair of Martins nested on a house in the next road to us, so my boxes are unlikely to get a visit from it!

'Our' Swift headed out at 7.53am and returned to roost at 8.39pm. The Sparrows continue to use SW(up) - the male brought in a single twig during the morning.

- Click on the images to see larger versions -