Front Royal Hotel Cottage elevation (Click over to enlarge)
Shows the nesting site histories including 2019 so far
It's good news!
We are now up to 19 confirmed nest sites already.....
Historic final end of season counts were as follows:
2018 = 25 sites
2017 = 22 sites
2016 = 23 sites
2015 = 20 sites
We had up to 5 Swifts flying above the Royal, Neddy Hill and the Memorial Hall areas, but by the time we returned at the close of the watch the numbers had swelled to 11 birds in these same areas.
Generally throughout the watch from approx 2000hrs to 2130hrs we had few birds as though the majority had gone away somewhere to feed up or like we have mentioned before they could have been at a height beyond our sight!
The first watch was opposite the Royal Cottage front elevation, where we witnessed one bird on two separate occasions enter and leave the eaves site just over one metre in from the left hand side. This is a very old established site in our records which has been used now from back in 2013,2015,2016,2017,2018 and again this year 2019. Its immediately to the right hand side of a large triangular hole just under the plastic guttering. Also on our return and passing the Royal we were fortunate to see a bird entering yet another old established site (but new for this year!) which is again in the eaves but this time to the right hand of the cottage and above the left hand side of the right hand window. This site has been recorded in each year since 2014 to the present. We also had a small party of 3 screaming birds using Main Street at this point which we took to be immature birds which at times let you think they were about to descend into a nest site but at the last minute sort of swerved away and continued with their screaming chasing frolics!
Our last point of call tonight was at the Manor House although we never witnessed any nesting activity, but did see a regular 5 birds in the skies above the Manor House/Coaching House.
Tonights observers were: Reg Hesketh and Bryan Yorke.
Nest sites occupied so far this year = (19) plus probable 2 at Clawthorpe.
Post Office Buildings (1)
Cocking Yard (4) maxed
Royal Cottage rear (4) maxed
Royal Cottage front (5) out of 7
Coach House gable and rear (1?) out of 4
Manor House gable, front and annexe (4) out of 6
Clawthorpe Hall Offices (?) seen 3 birds in skies overhead
Also it's interesting to report good news from Tanya and Edmund up at Sizergh who are also having a good year so far with their Swifts! and such a interesting report especially in relation to the "banging" activity.......
plenty of swifts
Thu
Jun 27, 2019 4:02 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Tanya Hoare" tanyaedmund
We've had bangers since end of May but today
its been Bangers Central here,
lots of them in wonderful sunshine.
All our pairs (18 + 5 in adjacent cottages) have returned this year which
seems to be bucking a trend? (Although in one eaves site, one swift didn't
come back til 23 May and it pulled in a new mate on 2 June. They laid eggs
on 20/22 June which means they'll be staying really late into August.)
Other good news is that we have at least 6 new pairs. Two of these have laid
eggs, again not til between 21 to 26 June so even more swifts will be
staying very late. We've never had this before. We wonder about the future
for these swifts, not just the chicks, but the adults remaining after most
swifts have departed.
But we've had more than the usual number of eggs being knocked out of nests.
This is not just in Stimpson boxes, but also in one of our eaves sites which
is very spacious, which has never happened before. Knocking the eggs out
looks entirely accidental, but who knows? And in one nest they were
deliberately ejected from the box even though we can see no evidence of
fighting. This means that our chick rate will be down this year, we only
have one nest with 3 chicks being reared.
Some other less good news is that a parent disappeared from one
long-standing nest the day the chicks hatched (more of this saga later).
Yes, the weather was bad, but the other swifts seemed to cope all right.
So because of the new pairs, overall this year has been good so far, albeit
with quite a few not-so-good happenings too.
Tanya & Edmund (Cumbria)
lots of them in wonderful sunshine.
All our pairs (18 + 5 in adjacent cottages) have returned this year which
seems to be bucking a trend? (Although in one eaves site, one swift didn't
come back til 23 May and it pulled in a new mate on 2 June. They laid eggs
on 20/22 June which means they'll be staying really late into August.)
Other good news is that we have at least 6 new pairs. Two of these have laid
eggs, again not til between 21 to 26 June so even more swifts will be
staying very late. We've never had this before. We wonder about the future
for these swifts, not just the chicks, but the adults remaining after most
swifts have departed.
But we've had more than the usual number of eggs being knocked out of nests.
This is not just in Stimpson boxes, but also in one of our eaves sites which
is very spacious, which has never happened before. Knocking the eggs out
looks entirely accidental, but who knows? And in one nest they were
deliberately ejected from the box even though we can see no evidence of
fighting. This means that our chick rate will be down this year, we only
have one nest with 3 chicks being reared.
Some other less good news is that a parent disappeared from one
long-standing nest the day the chicks hatched (more of this saga later).
Yes, the weather was bad, but the other swifts seemed to cope all right.
So because of the new pairs, overall this year has been good so far, albeit
with quite a few not-so-good happenings too.
Tanya & Edmund (Cumbria)
The next Swift watch will be next Thursday 4th July 2019 - Meeting at the Memorial Hall at 2000hrs - Everyone Welcome