All of the units that are occupied seem to be doing quite well. As of my nest check yesterday, I have 35 eggs plus 13 young ones. Thus I have 48 eggs/chicks in 12 compartments for an average occupancy of 4 eggs/chicks per occupied unit. That's low, but the data is skewed due to two nests only having one egg each so far. They are just starting to lay eggs.
I currently have two nestcams broadcasting live on the Internet, with one more to be added in the next few days. In addition, I have a high definition nestcam on my Barn Swallow nest. All of these cameras can be accessed by just a simple browser with no special programs, browser helper programs or passwords required. Just copy and paste the URLs below into a browser window and view. Before they let you watch the live video, they will play a short commercial. That will only happen when you first connect to the camera. All cams also have sound. Here are the URLs for the nestcams.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/purplemartin02 - this is a camera and microphone that I built into the lid of a gourd. The camera is slightly out of focus but I will adjust that the next time I lower the housing. In this gourd there are three (3) young Martins, only a few days old. One of the interesting things I have noticed in watching this nestcam is the male Martin will come in with food to give to the female Martin who spends almost all her time inside the gourd. It's interesting to see the male pass the food from his beak to her beak.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/purplemartin03 - this camera and microphone is installed into one of my housing units. I bought a special super wide angle lens which gives a pretty good view of the entire compartment. The nest in the back of the nest tray has 4 eggs in it which will probably hatch any day now. At night, the female is on the eggs and the male sleeps at the foot of the nest tray, near the entrance hole. At the present time, the audio is off - I will fix that shortly.
The third Purple Martin nestcam should be up in a few days. I'll post another message when it is up and running.
You can view the Barn Swallow nestcam at
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/barn-swallow-nest - this camera does NOT have night vision, so at night it will be black. There are just two young Barn Swallows in the nest, hatched on May 1, so now 11 days old. They will fledge on or about May 21st. So watch now before it is too late!
