15 September 2017
This month chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagica) are migrating to South America, leaving before the weather’s too cold for the flying insects they eat on the wing.
At dusk the flocks swirl around large chimneys then dive in to roost. This video from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia shows them streaming into an old schoolhouse chimney. Wow!
Don’t worry when you see smoke coming out of the chimney at the end of the video. An observer explains: “There are actually two flues in the chimney. The chimney swifts use the larger flue, while the smoke is vented from the smaller flue, so the birds are safe. In fact, they probably benefit from the bit of heat that comes from the smaller flue.”
Stake out a chimney in town to enjoy the air show or monitor a wooden chimney swift tower near you.
Chimney swifts are declining and listed as “Near Threatened” so Audubon of Western Pennsylvania has placed chimney swift towers in our area. ASWP needs your help tracking whether swifts are using the towers during migration. Click here for information on how you can help.
(video from JimHowDigsDirt on YouTube)
p.s. Thanks to Joe Fedor for sending me ASWP’s chimney swift news.
The football team from our daughters’ high school used to play on a field at an old school in Carnegie. Every so often we would see a huge flock of swifts diving into the chimney on the school at the beginning of the game. It was an impressive sight.
Kate – Thanks so much for sharing information about ASWP’s monitoring program and conservation initiatives! I’d like to invite everyone to our Fall 2017 Swift Watch events. Swift Watch 1 is tonight (9/15) at 7 pm; meeting location is Commonplace Coffee in Squirrel Hill. Swift Watch event 2 is on Monday 9/18 at 7 pm at the Freeport Area High School in Sarver.
I think the best description I’ve ever heard for Chimney Swifts entering a chimney is “reverse smoke”, especially after sunset when the birds are just blurred silhouettes in the fading light. I used to work at a warehouse in Harrisburg that had a few aging and unused chimneys. I would work until 7 pm and by early fall I was usually leaving when the sun was setting. I would frequently be left standing in the parking lot alone after everyone left for the evening because I was caught mesmerized, staring at the aerial acrobatics of the swifts that shared the building with us. We were basically trading shifts in the building.