Our last update one year ago detailed the eight nesting pairs of Swifts that had been encouraged to nest at the Hospital of St Cross, Winchester, following the installation of 15 internal nesting boxes in the winter of 2018/2019.
During April 2022 we installed a further 20 boxes and all have now been renumbered so that we can keep track of each box at the end of the nesting season.
So that makes a total of 35 boxes now installed, including five on the rear of the Old Kitchen Wing with an additional call player. Interestingly two of these new boxes on the rear already have partly-built nests inside them. We knew Swifts were using two of these boxes as we were indoors on the first floor on 24 June when we heard birds go into both boxes 23 and 24.
Overall the numbers of nesting pairs has gone from eight to nine in 2022. And there were four completed or partially built nests this year rather than the two last year. It seems that the pair that built the nest in box ten (previously box two) last year did not return to breed.
Although the feathery parts of the feathers have all been eaten over the winter and there are one or two extra droppings in the nest showing that Swifts have been in the box this summer, there aren’t the extra poo marks indicating that young were reared.
There is still potential for a further five boxes to be installed here and we look forward to completing that over the winter.
And here is a video of an adult with two fully fledged young that nested for the second year under box 18 (prev box 6) whilst another pair nested inside the box just 50mm over their heads.
Last night together before the youngsters leave the nest
Bring on 2023.
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