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Chimney Swifts in Columbia, SC



Paul,

Caroline Eastman and I have just returned from watching the Chimney Swifts
go to roost in downtown Columbia, SC (Saturday, 8 Sep 2001). The site is a
chimney at an old textile mill (Whaley Mill) which has been converted into
student apartments, on the edge of the University of South Carolina campus,
near the intersection of Assembly Street and Catawba Street. This is at N 33
degrees 59.322 minutes, W 81 degrees 1.754 minutes, at about 194 feet above
sea level.

The weather was good -- clear, about 80 degrees F., winds light and
variable, 1 on the Beaufort scale. We estimated about 2700 to 3200 swifts
using the site, plus or minus 1000. We used two methods to get this
estimate. First we mentally divided the sky into 16 sectors and then tried
to estimate the number of birds in 1/16 of a full circle just before the
swifts started to enter the chimney. My best estimate using this method was
about 200 birds in one sector, or a total of about 3200 swifts. The swifts
started to enter the chimney in earnest at about 8:00 PM EDT, and continued
at a steady rate until about 8:15 PM. I estimate that about 3 birds per
second were entering the chimney. This gives 3 * 60 * 15 = 2700 swifts, in
the same ballpark as the other estimate. I just there may have been as few
as 2000 swifts or as many as 4000.

Do you have any better suggestion about how to count swifts?

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
mailto: rcarter@sc.rr.com