Swift Half update - 25th January 2011

• Firstly - pond news.
• We certainly have adult palmate newts in the pond (I've seen both male and female at night, with a torch) - so thats good! Neither the heron nor cats have caught all our palmate newts!
• But - and here's something I've learned today. We also have larval newts - in JANUARY!
• It turns out that occasionally, newts will over-winter in ponds as aquatic, feathery-gilled larvae - and that's what has happened in our pond - clearly!
• I assume our palmate newt larvae will develop in the spring and summer, lose their feathery gills and walk onto land - they then will be known as "efts".
• Never knew that before!
• Secondly - Swift Half swift news (or plans I should say).
• This year -instead of broadcasting a live webfeed onto the internet (like last year) (if we're lucky enough to get swifts back in the roof), I intend to produce regular HD short video clips (with sound) and put them onto my youtube account (and embed them, or a link to them on this blog).
• This decision was primarily because the quality of webfeed last year was pretty atrocious. Whereas Anna and I could make out every detail of each swift, every feather, every dropping, every tiny chick -when we viewed via the web feed (rather than our tv) - everything was just a blurry smudge - with no sound at all.
• Anna and I were treated to A LOT of sound from inside the nest all summer - the female screaming at the male when he arrived at dusk, the youngsters purring for food -and the webfeed didn't give you any of that.
• SOoooo - I've tested a video suite today (results on facebook) and am very excited to see that it all works nicely. Decision made then - no webfeed this year, just short, high quality clips (maybe every day - certainly very regular) of our swifts - which should improve your viewing of them!
• Now all we need is a lorra luck - I expect our beautiful swifts back on St.George's day or very shortly after. Not long now. Plllease don't let me down swifts!