Megan's Nature Nook
Nature Notes, Phenology, Photography, Fun Facts, Trips, Maybe Even a Bad Joke or Two... and More!
Last summer while working in Montana I volunteered for the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (MT FWP) doing Chimney Swift Surveys. Before this, I hadn’t seen (or at least known that I’d seen) a Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica) before and had no clue about their nightly ritual. For the survey I was looking for Chimney Swifts around the town of Glendive, Montana to see if there were any in the area or not since the MT FWP didn’t have any documentation of them in the area. I surveyed three locations in town that had large chimneys and watched for a half an hour before until a half an hour after sunset. All I had to do was watch and count how many Swifts I saw flying overhead and record the most I saw at a given time, then record if there were any that entered the chimney. The good news is, I saw Swifts at each location and was able to confirm a population in Glendive! Shortly after doing the surveys, I saw an article in the Red Wing newspaper about the Audubon Society awarding my church, St. John’s Lutheran, an award for not capping the chimney and providing suitable habitat for Swifts! I had gone all the way to Montana to see a Swift when there was a colony right at home! Once I was back in Minnesota at the end of the summer, my parents and I went to the church in the evening to see if we could spot and Swifts. I was getting a little late in the year since they migrate to South America in the fall, but we counted 32 that went into the chimney! Fast forward to this year, we planned a little better and went in mid-August, so we would have a better chance of seeing more. This time we counted 167 going into the chimney! As you can see and hear, counting them can be a challenge at times! You can ignore our commentary :) If you haven’t watched Chimney Swifts before, you might be wondering, “What’s the big deal with these little birds?!” (I’m looking at you, Uncle Brad!) Chimney Swifts arrive in Minnesota in April and will stay around until August or September. They are small birds, that are often called “flying cigars” because of their body shape. They have rapid wingbeats and make a chittering sound, making them often confused with bats. Chimney Swifts are unable to perch on tree branches or the ground, but can hold onto vertical surfaces like brick walls (chimneys) or inside hollow trees. Since they can only hold onto vertical surfaces they make their nests inside chimneys, in tree cavities, or on walls of buildings. They spend most of their lives flying, only resting during nesting and at night. They gather twigs for nests by grabbing onto and breaking them off the tree in mid-flight, then bringing it to the chimney and “cementing” it to the wall with their glue-like saliva. Chimney Swifts spend their days flying and eating flying insects such as mosquitoes, flies, bees, wasps, mayflies, and the like. Nightly, around sunset, groups of Chimney Swifts will begin to gather as they head to their roosting site. They will begin flying around their site as a cloud of Swifts, at times circling the chimney then flying off and returning again to circle more. Often times, you will hear their chittering call before you see them. In August and September large groups of Swifts gather together as they prepare for migration and groups of hundreds or thousands can be seen swarming and entering chimneys! This circling/swarming display usually begins about half an hour before sunset and will end with the Swifts entering the chimney shortly after sunset. It is a fun spectacle to watch! They will fly around and swarm then one or two will do a little flutter and drop into the chimney. A few more circles, and a couple more will drop in, followed by more and more until eventually all the Swifts have gone in for the night. At times it will just be one or two here and there, while others, a stream of Swifts resulting in a Swift tornado will dive into the chimney, making it hard to count! This past week, I participated in a “Swift Sit” with the Zumbro Valley Audubon in Rochester, Minnesota at Kellogg Middle School. We counted around 700 Swifts swarming and tornadoing into the chimney for the night! The most I had seen at once! Watching Chimney Swifts during their nightly ritual is an easy and fun thing to do!
Visit the Chimney Swift Conservation Association website for more information about Chimney Swifts. Known Chimney Swift roosts in the area: Red Wing, Minnesota St. John’s Lutheran Church - 421 East Ave, Red Wing, MN 55066, Map Jefferson School - 601 Buchanan St, Red Wing, MN 55066, Map Frontenac, Minnesota Villa Maria - Florence Township, Map Hastings, Minnesota City Hall - 101 4th St E, Hastings, MN 55033, Map Rochester, Minnesota Kellogg Middle School - 503 17th St NE, Rochester, MN 55906, Map John Marshall High School - 0244, 1510 14th St NW, Rochester, MN 55901, Map I'm sure there are more, but these are just a few that I know of.
4 Comments
Sue
9/3/2018 08:28:46 am
I am laughing out loud about the comment referring to Uncle Brad! I had just said I want to go see this, and his remark was EXACTLY what you wrote! I will get him to go watch the Chimney Swifts some night this week!
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Kathrine
9/10/2022 07:37:44 am
Thank you for posting this phenomenon - I saw this across the street from my house yesterday and was wondering what this was I was seeing. There were hundreds of them dive bombing into the chimney. I wonder what time of day they wake up and come out of the chimney?
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Darilyn J Reed
8/5/2023 01:39:17 pm
We recently realized we have Swifts and enjoy watching them every evening upon return ...
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