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Wednesday 11 July 2012

Common Swift CCTV




Edit:An hour later , it's eventually stopped raining and within minutes both adults are sitting at the entrance and eventually leave , could they sense this rain would ease and decided to wait rather than travel further to feed ?


Apus apus
Just an update re the Common swifts nesting in the loft of my house on the North-east coast of the UK, one of the chicks has disappeared which is sad as they  both seemed fit and healthy . Its raining outside and has been virtually for the past couple of days  , here a nest site sheltered from the elements comes into its own ,no nest to build so it's straight down to breeding , the nest site is well sheltered  and safe from predators although it can get very warm in the loft during the usually warm summer. Swifts usually feed in ahead of a weather front  sometimes going hundreds of miles to find food , a Swift in off the sea the other day could have come from the continent . Today both adults are with the chick and have been all morning , perhaps hoping for it to clear up so they can feed themselves and the single youngster.

2 comments:

Johnnykinson said...

Is there not a possibilty one of the young has gone into torpor due to the wet conditions and the threat of a shortage of food ???
Amazing to think these birds only come off the wing to breed and here they are on camera in your loft. Thanks for sharing these brilliant images with us.

Northumbrian Birding said...

Hi John, I can only think it has either been pushed out of the nest as an adult exits or has fallen out, they back up to the entrance to defecate although I can find no sign of it.
Brian