Swift Half SWIFTS update - 24th June 2011

• Clip number thirty-four - recorded yesterday (23rd June) at around 1000hrs BST and uploaded on the wesbite today (24th June) at around 0715hrs BST.

• This is an experimental clip - footage of our nestlings being fed, but slowed down to 50% speed - so the viewer can really appreciate the action.
• In this clip the female adult enters the nest space with a gob-full of compressed insects for her chicks. She ousts the male from his incubation spot and feeds both chicks. The first chick she feeds is the younger of the two (by a day) and she puts a gurt big "fly biscuit" in that chick's beak. So big is the compressed biscuit of flies, that the chick can't swallow it in one go - nor is its neck strong enough yet to support its head plus a lump of food in its beak. So it takes a little time to work the insects down its throat!
• In this clip the female does feed the older chick at the back of the nest also. You may notice that the older chick is beginning to look a little greyer than its sibling and a little more speckled, as its first feathers push through the pink skin.She then makes to leave the nest (this is happening very often now - both adults leave the chicks and hunt simultaneously for food for their young - and this will happen more and more now).
• Unfortunately for our adult female, the adult male is blocking the exit from the nest -and she screams at him to effectively "get out of the way". The audio of this clip is slowed to 50% also, but right at the end of the clip, you'll clearly hear the female scream in a higher pitch than the male, who answers back - albeit at 50% speed, like I've said.