Swift half SWIFTS update - 30th April 2011

• Both adult swifts are displaying the classic signs of swift courtship in the nest-space now.
• Both roosted together all night, dozing occasionally and then waking for a spot of mutual groomage.
• Whilst swifts are generally covered in parasites (lice and mites) this grooming doesn't seem to be to rid each other of this beasties - just as a relationship cement.
• Its lovely to see both together - in the sky and in the roof overnight.
• I've recorded two clips from last night (clips eight and nine here) which show both birds entering the nest, both birds screaming to each other in the nest (right at the end of clip eight - the female has the higher pitched scream, the male the lower) and both birds engaging in some seriously heavy petting in clip nine.
• Clip nine does show what appears to be a semi or trial copulation, but I'm pretty sure I have not (yet) recorded copulation in the nest-space. The bird on the right of the two at the start of clip nine, buzzes its wings*, mounts the other bird, appears to "thrust" and then dismounts to allow mutual grooming to continue.
• It would be easy to think that this is copulation, but I'm not convinced that the bird on the right at the start of the clip (the bird that wing buzzes) is indeed the male - I think its the female. So I rather think I have a little more recording to do and a lot more luck, to be able to say I have actually recorded swift copulation on video. Of course many swifts mate in the air, so no matter how much footage I record, I may not get a mating on tape.
• * Many small birds (more often than not, song birds - of which swallows and martins ARE, but swifts are NOT) wing flutter or wing "buzz" before copulation. Very often its the female sparrow or blue tit (for example) which approaches the male, takes up a submissive posture, buzzes her wings and the male responds accordingly. In the case of our two swifts, I've witnessed the wing buzzing a few times in the nest space now, and am of the uneducated opinion that it is purely courtship behaviour, rather than pre-mounting behaviour.
• I am am hoping that a swift expert might visit my site and explain all!
• Because a dual roost (of both adults overnight in the nest) has occurred about a week earlier than last year, one might reasonably assume that the first egg might be laid a week earlier, if all goes to plan.
• This would make an approximate guesstimation of date for any first egg to be laid as 12th May - time will tell I guess.