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More from Lee-on-Solent

Updated: Sep 26

Mark Wagstaff has given a further update on his colony in Lee-on-Solent:

Trevor and Simon returned towards the end of July and ringed the remaining chicks. That made a total of 23 young fledged between myself and neighbour Janet, which is the most we’ve ever managed, and in a poor year weatherwise for swifts. I still have 3 pairs here with chicks (8 Aug) – all the rest are gone. The oldest chicks are exactly 6 weeks old today but show no signs of going yet. I understand the later breeders often take longer for their chicks to fledge and that certainly seems the case here. Thankfully, all the chicks to date seem to have fledged successfully – I rarely see them actually leave the nest but we’ve had no tell-tale feathers on the ground from anything that has not successfully managed their first flight. We did get a sparrowhawk attack a few weeks back and it caught an adult and grounded it on our lawn, but quick thinking by my neighbour saved the day and I managed to get it airborne again. I think it must have been a prospector rather than a breeding adult as we didn’t notice any breeding adult missing or injured on my cameras.

The last young fledged in mid-August which meant they were about 7 weeks old.

Year

Pairs

Young ringed

Adults ringed

2014

2

4

1

2015

1

2


2016

1

2

13

2017

1

2


2018

4

7

1


4

8

1 retrap

2020

5

11

3 + 1 retrap

2021

6

10

7 + 1 retrap

2022

9

19

2

2023

10

21

1 + 1 retrap

2024

11

23

3

As at many other sites this year, there were quite a few eggs laid that were later pushed out of the nest. This appears to happen more in years like this where adults are struggling to find plentiful food while the weather is cool and sometimes wet. The birds later relay a new clutch when the weather improves. At least three pairs occupied other boxes but did not breed.

Young Swift awaiting processing
Young Swift awaiting processing

Overall this is a fantastic result and many thanks go to Mark Wagstaff, his neighbour Janet, and to Trevor Codlin for the ringing and passing on his detailed data. And now it’s time to expand the colony, so Mark is planning to increase the number of boxes by installing more around Lee-on-Solent this winter.




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