Thank you for joining me this morning! This is my first time as a "Dawn Chorus" guest diarist and I hope you enjoy today's topic and bird.
The images I am sharing here today are webcam captures and videos from last year's nesting season. Special thanks to my "downstate buddy" GH - for all his hard work to give us a window into the unique nesting and lives of Chimney Swifts (Chaetura pelagica).
Roosting Chimney Swifts - August 2008
From the Cornell Lab "All About Birds: Chimney Swift"
A "flying cigar," the Chimney Swift is rarely seen perched. Its high-pitched twittering is a familiar sound during summertime in the city as it flies high above, catching small flying insects.
A little background in how I got involved with this "project" and began to learn more about these common birds.
Back in July 2007 my friend GH found out the hard way that Chimney Swifts had always been nesting in his home's chimney. I say hard way because a severe storm blew through his area and a swifts' nest detached from his home's chimney wall, along with 4 young nestlings (I still remember getting his frantic phone call that night). The story does have a happy ending - all four survived the fall, GH managed to build a ledge to lower into the chimney and the nestlings were reunited with the parents. He also set up an infrared webcam to keep an eye on the family to make sure all was well.
4 Young Chimney Swifts on ledge:
The family left the chimney in late August and in November GH called me and asked what I thought about building a Chimney Swift Tower and installing some webcams for internet viewing (I've worked on a couple over the years). Of course I had to say "What a great idea!".
It was a long winter, a lot of work on the tower, choosing the right cameras and setting up the server end of things, but finally in March 2008 the Tower was set in place (and close to the existing chimney which had been capped). GH was prepared and ready to go. Now we just needed to sit back and wait for the swifts to return. We had also made arrangements with Cornell Lab to share images, live feed, etc... so the pressure was on and we had a lot of people around the country watching and waiting with us.
Photo of the man made tower (plans available via ChimneySwifts.Org - see link at end of diary):
We could probably write a short book about the nesting season we witnessed. This morning I'm sharing some of the highlights from 2008.
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The Swifts finally arrived in mid April 2008, but they weren't going into the tower. We both started worrying. Did we screw up? What was it about the tower they didn't like? Birds kept flying around the capped off chimney, but wouldn't enter the tower. GH was tempted to give up, take off the cap and give them access to the site they had always used in the past (Chimney Swifts will return to the same nesting site every year). Just as we were about to give up on this project, a pair of swifts entered the tower and quickly claimed it as their own, even chasing out other birds who tried to roost with them. *Cool Swift Fact: The birds will roost in groups, but only one pair will nest in a nesting site.
Swifts copulating in the tower - don't blink or you'll miss it ;)
Finally a mated pair had arrived. They wasted no time getting down to the business of nest building :) Both adults worked on the nest - sometimes pushing each out of the way in the process.
*Cool Chimney Swift Facts: Swifts place (or "glue" with their saliva) twigs to the walls in several areas before deciding which is the most ideal place to build the nest. To this day, scientists have not been able to identify the unique composition of Swift saliva! Just imagine, these nests are built with twigs and spit!
As the nest grew in size we waited for the first egg. It arrived on the morning of June 13th. (Doesn't it look like a little pearl?)
*Cool Swift facts: Chimney Swift nests and eggs are tiny! Also the nest is not complete prior to egg laying. The adults will continue to add twigs even as more eggs are being laid.
For some perspective on what you see inside the tower here is a photo that GH shared last year
I look at these photos now and still catch my breath. How can these eggs not fall out? What an architectual and engineering miracle these little nests are!
*Cool Swift Fact: Average clutch size for Chimney Swifts is 3 to 5 eggs.
Both adults incubate the eggs and because brooding usually starts after the second or third egg is laid, chicks will not all hatch on the same day.
Finally 22 days after the first egg was laid, two hatch
Four days later all 4 eggs have hatched. During warm and humid weather the nestlings can be left for short periods of time
This is one of my favorites
Just a short ten days after the photo above was captured, they are outgrowing the nest! And if you look very carefully you should be able to find the adult in the middle of the feather pile :)
Nineteen days after initial hatching and all are out of the nest and clingling to the tower walls.
In this photo all 4 nestlings are huddled with both adults.
*Cool Swift Facts from Cornell's All About Birds:
"Chimney Swifts do not sit on perches like most birds, but instead use their long claws to cling to the walls of chimneys and other vertical surfaces.
Swifts are among the most aerial of birds, flying almost constantly except when at the nest or roosting at night. The Chimney Swift bathes in flight, gliding down to water, smacking the surface with its breast, then bouncing up and shaking the water from its plumage as it flies away."
Even though the young swifts were out of the nest it was two - two and half weeks before they left the tower to hunt with their parents. We witnessed plenty of wing flapping and practicing before they "fledged/left the tower".
The Chimney Swift family continued to use the tower for night roosting into late August. Some nights other swifts joined them. I can't help but hope that they had a safe journey to South America and that soon they will be coming back to the Hudson Valley for another nesting season.
I hope you enjoyed today's diary and that you all have a wonderful weekend! And Happy Easter to those who will be celebrating on Sunday.
I'll end this diary with my favorite short video clip of last year's nestlings getting fed.
While the cam is not yet live this year, you can go back and view some of the highlights, commentary and video clips of last year's season. Here's the old link to Cornell's 2008 Chimney Swift section.
And if you want to learn more about Chimney Swifts,The North American Chimney Swift Nest Site Research Projct has information and a short but helpful brochure.