Watched parent shift her body showing an egg as she moved it’s position. It also moved a stick from the left, added saliva and replaced it closer to the front.
Love all these comments from you guys. This is quite a new experience for me.
Sorry I missed the parent switch. I came on after the vultures.
This is very exciting! Hope to learn a lot.
2:36 P.M. Shift change.
Emily, I think there are varying degrees of experience here. We all share a love of birds and want to learn more. I’m a life-long birder anxious to know more about birds not so familiar to me, such as the Chimney Swifts. I’m totally entranced.
I just watched one adult leave the nest (10:43 a.m.) and the other adult was waiting in the wings (sorry, couldn’t help the pun). As soon as the first adult left the nest, the other one hopped onto the nest. No idea how many eggs but I assume this means incubation has started in earnest? How long is the incubation and do they hatch in a staggered timeframe?
Watching an adult on nest on Friday morning at 10:15. “Heavy breathing” but I’m not a real birder so I don’t know what it means if anything. Laying an egg? Incubating? Protecting? I don’t know but this is really great stuff!
You are all so, so wonderful for answering my amateur questions and taking the time to be this thorough and thoughtful. I hope the eggs are all there and I watched for a while last night because I could see the top of an adult’s head on the bottom of the screen. I wonder if there will be another egg today? THANK YOU!!!!!!
I have chimney swifts in my chimney. I first heard them about 3 yrs ago. We never use the fireplace so I let them have it
Thanks, Mike. I’ve looked and looked and compared to my screen captures from yesterday when the five could be seen clearly, hoping that might be the case.
The egg appears to be in the back. This is life on the edge and what makes this a nail biting experience. The space between the nest from each line is 3 1/2 inches… So that nest is mayby 3 inches wide and 2 inches tall.
6:16 A.M. It looks as if one of the five eggs has tumbled out of the nest. As Mike has said, it can happen.
Hello, Emily.
Breeding Swifts have enlarged salivary glands that produce a substance (saliva) that “cements” or glues the sticks they carry in their mouths to the wall and to each stick. They begin the nest by spreading a patch of saliva on the wall. They continue to reinforce the nest.
What I have seen here and what seems remarkable is that a Swift can carry a stick in its bill and use its tongue to spread the saliva. Just the most fascinating birds and so much more to learn about them.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to do that here.
Maybe I take back the observation about no parent observed because I think I see the top of an adult’s head on the low part of the picture’s frame. Just hanging around the nest or is there another egg in the future or . . . ?
It seems like the eggs have shifted position – harder to make out five eggs because at first glance, it’s like there are 4. I thought incubation had begun in earnest but have checked back several times and no parent is there consistently. Because scale is difficult to determine via this site, can you give an approximate comparison? The eggs are the size of???? and how big is the nest? If there is no platform, how does is withstand the weight of birds and eggs? Thanks – this is really interesting!!!
both parents on nest now
Wow! This is interesting to watch. I like this better than the other nest webcams.
Swift on nest at 5:38 P.M. Straight on position with head resting against wall. No other Swifts visible. Perhaps incubation has now begun in earnest. Appears to be raining.
Viewing stream video from my iPad. A parent swift is incubating now: nearly motionless except for breathing, its right wing is held close to the body while the left wing droops over the side of the nest. Next a brief under-the-wing preen and the eggs are quickly turned. Very cool!
Can also view the nest. A Swift has been on the nest from 2:15 to 2:45 P.M. When I viewed the nest at 1:52 P.M., there was no Swift on the nest, and the five eggs were visible.
No images for me either.
U stream is not having any issues. I can view the swifts.
Your real-time image distributing system over the internet does not work anymore.
@Jim Wilson: the sticks above were a first nest that the couple initially started to build. Apparently its location in the chimney was not satisfactory; thus this beginning of nest was abandoned and a new and final nest was built a few inches deeper in the chimney. Why? It is not even used to perch.
Works fine for me.
I watched this same thing happen. Commercials galore, but 10 mins. plus and still no feed. Perhaps this is due to heavy rain which appears to be widespread.
Both adults on nest @ 10 in the evening –
Watched parent shift her body showing an egg as she moved it’s position. It also moved a stick from the left, added saliva and replaced it closer to the front.
Love all these comments from you guys. This is quite a new experience for me.
Sorry I missed the parent switch. I came on after the vultures.
This is very exciting! Hope to learn a lot.
2:36 P.M. Shift change.
Emily, I think there are varying degrees of experience here. We all share a love of birds and want to learn more. I’m a life-long birder anxious to know more about birds not so familiar to me, such as the Chimney Swifts. I’m totally entranced.
I just watched one adult leave the nest (10:43 a.m.) and the other adult was waiting in the wings (sorry, couldn’t help the pun). As soon as the first adult left the nest, the other one hopped onto the nest. No idea how many eggs but I assume this means incubation has started in earnest? How long is the incubation and do they hatch in a staggered timeframe?
Watching an adult on nest on Friday morning at 10:15. “Heavy breathing” but I’m not a real birder so I don’t know what it means if anything. Laying an egg? Incubating? Protecting? I don’t know but this is really great stuff!
You are all so, so wonderful for answering my amateur questions and taking the time to be this thorough and thoughtful. I hope the eggs are all there and I watched for a while last night because I could see the top of an adult’s head on the bottom of the screen. I wonder if there will be another egg today? THANK YOU!!!!!!
I have chimney swifts in my chimney. I first heard them about 3 yrs ago. We never use the fireplace so I let them have it
Thanks, Mike. I’ve looked and looked and compared to my screen captures from yesterday when the five could be seen clearly, hoping that might be the case.
The egg appears to be in the back. This is life on the edge and what makes this a nail biting experience. The space between the nest from each line is 3 1/2 inches… So that nest is mayby 3 inches wide and 2 inches tall.
6:16 A.M. It looks as if one of the five eggs has tumbled out of the nest. As Mike has said, it can happen.
Hello, Emily.
Breeding Swifts have enlarged salivary glands that produce a substance (saliva) that “cements” or glues the sticks they carry in their mouths to the wall and to each stick. They begin the nest by spreading a patch of saliva on the wall. They continue to reinforce the nest.
What I have seen here and what seems remarkable is that a Swift can carry a stick in its bill and use its tongue to spread the saliva. Just the most fascinating birds and so much more to learn about them.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to do that here.
Maybe I take back the observation about no parent observed because I think I see the top of an adult’s head on the low part of the picture’s frame. Just hanging around the nest or is there another egg in the future or . . . ?
It seems like the eggs have shifted position – harder to make out five eggs because at first glance, it’s like there are 4. I thought incubation had begun in earnest but have checked back several times and no parent is there consistently. Because scale is difficult to determine via this site, can you give an approximate comparison? The eggs are the size of???? and how big is the nest? If there is no platform, how does is withstand the weight of birds and eggs? Thanks – this is really interesting!!!
both parents on nest now
Wow! This is interesting to watch. I like this better than the other nest webcams.
Swift on nest at 5:38 P.M. Straight on position with head resting against wall. No other Swifts visible. Perhaps incubation has now begun in earnest. Appears to be raining.
Viewing stream video from my iPad. A parent swift is incubating now: nearly motionless except for breathing, its right wing is held close to the body while the left wing droops over the side of the nest. Next a brief under-the-wing preen and the eggs are quickly turned. Very cool!
Can also view the nest. A Swift has been on the nest from 2:15 to 2:45 P.M. When I viewed the nest at 1:52 P.M., there was no Swift on the nest, and the five eggs were visible.
No images for me either.
U stream is not having any issues. I can view the swifts.
Your real-time image distributing system over the internet does not work anymore.
@Jim Wilson: the sticks above were a first nest that the couple initially started to build. Apparently its location in the chimney was not satisfactory; thus this beginning of nest was abandoned and a new and final nest was built a few inches deeper in the chimney. Why? It is not even used to perch.
Works fine for me.
I watched this same thing happen. Commercials galore, but 10 mins. plus and still no feed. Perhaps this is due to heavy rain which appears to be widespread.