Swifts 2026
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Fri 8 May, box #4: The swifts are arriving a bit later than usual this year. There have been sightings over the Sibfords in the last few days, and our first swift of the 2026 season arrived in its box at 7am this morning:
A second swift arrived in #1 this evening at 7.50pm:
Sat 9 May: A brief screaming party of 4 swifts around our colony this evening.
Sun 10 May: A third swift visited #3 today several times, but left at about 10.20pm and did not roost.
Mon 11 May: Three birds roosting tonight, in #1, #3, #4.
Tue 12 May: This is encouraging – our first sighting of a pair, entering #4 together at 11:20am, although only one roosted tonight:
Thu 14 May: A partner entered #3 very early in the morning at 5:18am, a few minutes after sunrise. It was great to see a visitor in #2 (empty so far) at 11:30 for 5 minutes, although it did not roost. Screaming party of five at about 2pm. Tonight we had two pairs roosting, in#3 and #4.
Sun 17 May: A swift visited #2, which has so far been empty, at about 08:30. It scrabbled around the entrance out of camera view for a couple of minutes, but then entered, had a look around and left at 08:37. Next door, the swift roosting in #1 came in at 08:55 with a partner. They squabbled a little then left separately a few minutes later, but returned together at 09:30 and stayed for 40 minutes or so. Only one roosted.
Mon 18 May: #1’s partner flew in at about 09:30 and the pair stayed together there for a couple of hours with some mutual preening, but they never settled down side by side as the pairs in #3 and #4 do for long periods (picture below), and again only one roosted.
Fri 22 May: At last, the #1 pair roosted together for the last three nights. A swift visited #2 yesterday for 10 minutes at 19:37. But the big news today is an EGG in #3 this morning:
A pair has been established round the corner in apex box #5 since at least 10 May. There is no camera in this box, but we have an external camera watching it. The pattern of comings and goings should tell us if and when they are incubating eggs. Recently there has also been quite a lot of knocking activity from prospecting swifts:
Sun 24 May: This morning there are two eggs in #3 and one in #4.
Wed 27 May: This morning there is one egg in #1, 3 in #3 and 2 in #4. There is also good news in #2, where a single swift has roosted for the last two nights and brought a partner into the box this morning; the video clip is notable for showing both swifts carrying louseflies (crataerina pallida). The bird on the left appears to be carrying a couple of much smaller parasites as well:
Now that they have a full clutch of 3 eggs, the pair in #3 have settled into serious incubation, rarely giving us a view of the eggs.
Thu 28 May: It became a pair roosting in #2 last night, so there’s a good chance that we’ll have a full house of 4 breeding pairs in the main colony this year, an improvement on the previous two years. A third egg was laid in #4 today.
Round the corner in the apex box the resident pair in #a5 are still leaving the box empty most of the day. There continues to be a lot of knocking activity on the lower boxes. One or two small birds have taken an interest too, and a butterfly paid a visit, as seen in this echo motion image:
Sat 30 May: A second egg was laid in #1 yesterday, so we now have in boxes #1 – #4 a total of 2 + 0 + 3 + 3 = 8 eggs, plus whatever there is in apex box#a5. Hatching should begin in mid-June.
Tue 2 June: A third egg laid in #1 yesterday and, as we were hoping last Thursday, an egg appeared in #2 this morning. So our total now is 3 + 1 + 3 + 3 = 10 eggs in the main colony.
Fri 5 June: Sadly, an egg was accidentally ejected from #4 nest cup this morning:
Since at the moment there is at least one parent in the box all the time, we can’t intervene to put the egg back, for fear of disturbing them.
A second egg appeared in #2.
Thu 11 June: a week of dutiful incubation in #3 culminated in our first hatchling of the season this morning:
Fri 12 June: Second hatchling in #3 today.
The #2 pair is not doing as well as the others: they have been rather careless incubators, sometimes covering only one egg of their two, and quite often leaving the nest altogether for hours at a time. On top of that, they seem to have a heavier load of lousefly than the other pairs. In my daily review of the camera footage, I rarely see louseflies in the other boxes, but in #2 there’s usually several sightings on the back of an adult, plus two or three crawling over the eggs.
The rain has interfered with my observation of the single pair in apex box #a5, but it is clear that they are seriously incubating; there is always at least one bird in the box and each time a swift enters, one exits a couple of minutes later.
Mon 15 June: All three eggs in #3 have now hatched, and also the two in #4. There are still three in #1 and two in #2. Something nearby must have blown a lot of straw into the air, as nearly all the swifts brought some into their boxes today.
Tue 16 June: This morning a swift entered an unoccupied box (#a6) in the apex unit and stayed for 15 minutes – a good sign for having a new breeding pair next year.
Sun 21 June: All eggs except those in #2 have hatched. The #2 pair laid eggs a few days later than the others. The number of comings and goings from apex box #a5 have doubled in the last couple of days, so they must be feeding chicks, giving us a possible total of 11 hatchlings with another 2 to come.
There’s been a great deal of “knocking” activity in the last week, including on my immediate neighbours’ chimney-mounted boxes. Another neighbour has seen a swift enter her previously unoccupied single box, and there was also a sighting of a swift entering a swift brick on the new housing estate. I’ve heard swifts calling from the boxes that were installed last year on the church. All good news!
Tue 23 Jun: The eggs in #3 were first to hatch, 10 – 12 days ago and today one of them stepped out of the nest for the first time to explore the box:
Wed 24 Jun: One of the two eggs in #2 hatched today:
Sat 27 June: Sadly, a chick just over a week old fell out of the apex box #a5 this evening. I don’t know what caused it. At that age a chick has no sight, and the bottom box entrance may be a factor. It’s unusual for a chick to leave the safety of the nest-cup at such an early age. I believe there was one parent in the box at the time.
Temperature chart
This chart shows the maximum and minimum temperatures in box #2 this summer. Box #2 is usually the one that gets warmest, being inside the top west corner of the gable end.
