Of birds and bees

The heatwave has finally broken and the rain has arrived. It has been a very good summer for insects and the swifts have certainly benefited from the steady warm weather. The two young swifts fledged from the nest on our house early on Saturday and with luck are heading towards the Med. now, on their way to their winter quarters in southern Africa. They are making the journey without parents and for the first time and these first few weeks will be critical for their survival.
The parents follow later after a gap of a few days. One of the parent birds returned to roost on saturday evening and has been sleeping in the nest since then. My guess is that it is avoiding the wet and windy weather of the last few days and simply recuperating from bringing up two youngsters. I hope it is OK and will be able to head off south very soon. We have known the adults to return like this in previous years but this one is inside staying particularly long. Time will tell.
Outside, the skies have fallen silent now and all the local swifts seem to have gone.

Pictures via the nest box camera