Swift Half SWIFTS update - 29th April 2011

• Someone has mentioned something about a wedding happening today, quite near to "Swift Half" - in fact we're only about 8 miles from Bucklebury, which I also hear has got quite famous for some reason, recently.
• Ah well.... the only news of a pairing I'm interested in today is of our swifts - note the plurality - swiftS! Thats right - at about 19:30hrs last night, two swifts came in and landed in our nest space.
• Well.... one swift went all the way in to the nest space and the other sat out of shot, in the entrance "tunnel" and preened for ten minutes or so.
• But, I can formally state that the second bird seems to have returned from Africa last night - we have a pair again and we have a green light for a good breeding season now!
• Please note - last year the pair re-united a day earlier (27th April) than this year (28th), but it was over a week before both the birds roosted together in the next space overnight and showed any visible, recorded signs of courtship behaviour (mutual grooming etc...) so we may have a week or so to wait before I can post that sort of stuff on my video clips.
• The latest clip (clip seven) recorded at about 19:30hrs BST last night (27th April) for most viewers will not the most interesting swift clip to watch, but for me its a relief that the two birds are back together and this clip documents the exact moment both went to the nest for the first time, together.
• I was outside in the garden at the time, and I saw two birds come in low and also HEARD them for the first time since last year - screaming to each other. That's been the strangest thing so far this year - as well as the lone swift (until now!)  - of course NO swift screaming.
• I watched them both circle the house once and then both birds landed in the roof within a second or so of each other.
• I don't know whether it is the female that goes into the viewable part of the nest space, emitting a truncated high pitched scream to her mate as she does so, or its the male entering and calling his partner. I think probably its the male you can see in the clip, and the male giving the confirmation call to his mate - he (it) certainly immediately stops and watches the female (or other bird) perched in the entrance tunnel.
• You'll not see the other bird in the clip - but you may well hear soft calls from one bird to the other, notice the change in shadow at the back of the box, when the second bird preens and also hear the out-of-sight bird preening (you'll need to turn the volume up on your computer to appreciate the noise).
• The second bird left the roof space about twelve minutes after both landed - and immediately climbed out of sight to roost on the wing I guess.
• I'm pretty sure our local swifts all feed at the veritable plethora of local gravel pits which stretch for a mile or three down the M4 - about 60 seconds flight away for our swifts.
• I hope the pair remain together (I have no reason to think they wouldn't -this all happened in an identical fashion last year) and come the end of the first week of May, both birds are roosting together in front of my wee camera - so any interested viewers can see them both.
• The seventh clip can be found by clicking HERE.
• EDIT at 2050hrs - BOTH birds have tonight roosted for the first time together. I've recorded a super clip with both birds on show and calling to each other. I'll update this blog tomorrow.