Growing fast

It's only just two weeks since the first of the chicks hatched but they are growing up already! They have lost their white downy covering now. Their dark skin is showing through, with the beginnings of proper feathers developing. Only the youngest is still clinging on to bits of fuzz, with a little white head - this will probably be gone too by tomorrow though, and it will be dark all over like the others.

They look very different to when they first hatched - like little dinosaurs - and are around the same size as a thrush now. All of this development must be down to a hearty diet of fish, fish and…more fish! They have been eating loads, thanks to their committed Dad and his regular deliveries to the nest.

Yesterday morning, he brought a big sea trout back. He and his mate grappled around with it for a few moments, before she took it off him. Fish doesn't come any fresher than this, it was still thrashing around in her talons! She ate the head herself, which is a delicacy usually reserved for the male. The youngest chick was raring to go with a fiesty few pecks at bits of the fish, trying to get food for itself rather than wait to be fed by Mum and Dad.

Around 3300 people came to visit over the three days of the bank holiday weekend and our first community weekend of the season. At one point on Saturday morning, it looked as though the sand martins were trying to out number the visitors with a hundred or so flying close to the site. In fact we had a full suite of hirundines that day with swifts, swallows, house martins and sand martins all putting in an appearance.