Swift half SWIFTS update - 1st August 2011 - BOTH juveniles now fledged.

• After a little research today, it has become clear to me that whilst I ignored (very unscientifically) the “evidence” that both our juvenile swifts fledged at sundown and assumed that they both sat near the entrance to the nest on their respective final nights in the roof, to fledge in the morning - the truth is both actually did fledge into the last dwindling light of the last two days. Please see clips 60 and 61 for my latest video updates.
• The evidence that I mentioned above came in the form of watching (and recording in the case of our second juvenile) both young swifts on consecutive days, spend their final day pretty-well glued to the entrance of the nest space, occasionally doing a few press-ups and not getting fed at all by the parents.
• As soon as the parent(s) returned to roost at night, both swifts seemed to beg for food (or calming preening attention), both were pretty-well ignored and both after a few minutes crawled purposefully towards the entrance hole, made a noise that sounded like an exit (a short “clip” as though feet had left the brickwork and wings had touched the bricks briefly (at 1:34 on clip sixty for our last juvenile swift to fledge) and I saw nor heard (important evidence that) any more from either of them.
• The noise (or lack of it) from each nestling on its fledge night was the most important evidence of all. Young swifts are quite vocal when they are in cramped company (whistling, purring, peeping constantly) and if they’re not making vocal noises, vigorous preening can be heard even if out-of-reach of the camera’s field of view.
• There was NO noise from either swift as soon as they’d crawled purposefully to the entrance to the nest, other than that final “clip” – as they left the nest, I now know.
• I had (again, very unscientifically) assumed that it would be too dark for our young swifts to fledge –and that they’d wait until the morning. Not so. In both cases (around 2115hrs BST) there was enough light in the sky (we’ve had a glorious weekend weather-wise) and even though that I am aware that swifts’ night-vision is not good – there was indeed enough light in the sky (for maybe 30 minutes) for them to both leave so late in the day and I assume fledge successfully.
• This seems to be often the case in swifts. They often wait for the parents to return at roost time – and then leave. Last year I think both our young fledged in the morning, but my memory may well be clouded, and even though swifts do fledge at any time (from dawn to dusk), dusk fledges are far from rare.
• Next year, when Anna and I will not be living at “Swift Half”, but in a town built post-war a few miles away, I will have to build a few swift boxes to my own design - and install cameras (and concaves) in such a fashion that I will have absolutely no doubt as to moment of fledging – all though to be fair, after the research I’ve done – I have little doubt this year that like I’ve said, both our wonderful little swifts fledged in the very last light of the 30th July and 31st July (which means my predictions of 31st July and 1st August were in actual fact about 3 hours out, to be exact!)
• So – where does that leave our “Swift Half” swifts right now?
• Well – I’ll compile a full chronological report of happenings this year in due course, but as for the two eggs that were eventually laid and incubated (not the three previous eggs that were laid by a “chancer female” and rejected by the late-returning female after a day-long fight) – both hatched 6 weeks ago and both young swifts developed well - both have now fledged and taken to the skies for at least two years of constant flight – mind-blowing when you think about it.
• Last night (for the first night since late spring) only one adult (the female I think) returned to the roof to roost (all other nights since the end of May, we’ve had two adults roost in the roof at night).
• Across the whole Kingdom of Animalia, it is widely regarded that breeding and sex is very risky for individuals in a whole manner of ways – this is true for our swifts also, so our adult swifts (as well as the airborne young) will right now be looking to feed up quickly and well - in preparation for their long flight south to sub-Saharan Africa – many swifts have already begun this journey from the UK already.
• It would not be beneficial for our adults to keep coming back to the nest site to roost for any length of time now, other than to rest if needed – but swifts as we all know, sleep on the wing if they’re not breeding – and our adults will revert to that behaviour as soon as possible. The energy needed to return to roost each night now that their offspring have fledged simply does not need to be expended.
• I expect we may see one adult swift roost for maybe two or so more nights and then one night this week, no bird will return to roost at “Swift Half” – our roof will be empty (at least of swifts – the sparrows are still there!) for nine long months.
• I will continue to record at dusk for a few nights, to see what night is the last night this year that we have a swift in the roof – but it may have already happened – it may be that last night was the last night of 2011 with at least one “Swift Half” swift in situ. Last year, both adults spent exactly 92 days in the roof before leaving – but this year was very different for a number of reasons.
• Each afternoon now, I see large flocks of martins and swifts high in the sky, calling to each other – and most of the swift flocks appear to be moving south – I always find this extremely sad.
• Sadder this year is the fact that whilst Anna and I have had a wonderful two and a half years at “Swift Half”, we now are leaving ourselves – so this years swifts will be the last ever we see from this lovely old house, where clearly they’ve been nesting for some time, possibly decades.
• I’ll miss them dreadfully – I really will – and so will Anna. They’ve become part of our lives, part of the house for three months each year. Swifts constantly amaze me (I’ll wax lyrical in some depth in a final round-up shortly) – they simply are the most superior of all birds.
• I will endeavour to attract them to our new house and build a fine box (boxes) for them – complete with an HD camera – but attracting them to an area which very probably has NEVER had swifts (the town didn’t exist pre-war) might very well take some time – but that’s for the future.
• As for the final few blog entries / website videos this year - there may be one or two more – and then that will be that.
• I’m heavy-hearted enough already, so please don’t get too sad reading this – I take great pride from how we’ve helped our local swifts (more on that later) and have been so privileged watching the intimate lives of the most amazing birds on the planet.

• I’ll wind this up for now, but this week looks like the last week ever of reporting from “Swift Half” on our “Swift Half” swifts…..