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re: C.Swift factoid



Rob G wrote:
>
> Paul tells me that only ONE pair of C. Swifts nest at any given site,
> and if I see 2000 birds go down the post office chimney there is at most
> one breeding pair at the bottom with all the other birds roosting higher
> up either as nonbreeding summer residents or migratory swifts heading
> farther north(and the non-breeding birds aren't too young to breed, they
> simply can't find enough available nest sites) !

On a related note, the latest newsletter from the South Carolina
Association of Naturalists (sorely out-of-date website at
http://members.aol.com/LynnBSmith/scan/index.html)
mentions that Chimney Swifts have started nesting in experimental nest
towers constructed for that purpose at the Sandhills Research and
Education Center near Columbia. It doesn't sound like these will ever be
as available or affordable as Purple Martin houses; apparently these were
custom-built by SC DNR. But something to think about... I'll paste some
information I found on the SC DNR website below, including contact
information that mentions a free Swift brochure.

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/

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from http://water.dnr.state.sc.us/cec/news/may1203.txt

The S.C. Carolina Department of Natural Resources is looking for
homeowners with a certain type of cap that covers the top of the chimney
but is open on the sides and allows the swifts to get inside.	If you
have such a chimney cap and the swifts are still able to nest inside the
chimney, please contact the S.C. Department of Natural Resources,
Sandhills Research and Education Center, PO Box 23205 Columbia SC 29224,
(803) 419-9645, or contact John Cely via e-mail at JCely@clemson.edu.

	Already the skies over suburbia are filled with the twitterings
and erratic flights of one of our most fascinating birds, the chimney
swift. This aerial acrobat that resembles a small dark swallow (and
sometimes even mistaken for a bat) spends most its day in flight feeding
exclusively on flying insects. Later this spring it will glue small twigs
to the inside of a chimney with its saliva and lay four to five white
eggs. Most homeowners are unaware that birds are nesting inside their
chimneys until the young swifts start their loud food-begging calls at two
weeks of age. Swifts are highly beneficial birds, do not spread vermin,
and only use the chimney during the warm months when the fireplace is
dormant.

	The chimney swift should be familiar to most homeowners because of
it chimney-nesting habits. Before the country was settled, swifts nested
in large hollow trees, but as the country was developed, and large trees
were cut down, swifts started nesting in chimneys. This adaptation has
been so complete that swifts now rarely nest in hollow trees. However,
with the increasing popularity of capped chimneys, swifts are finding many
of their former chimney homes unavailable to them. This could be
disastrous for the long-term population health of chimney swifts, as they
will have no place to nest.

	The S.C. Department of Natural Resources has constructed two
experimental chimney swift nesting towers at Clemson's Sandhills Research
and Education Center, but so far the swifts have not found them to their
liking. For a free brochure on chimney swifts, write S.C. Department of
Natural Resources, Sandhills Research and Education Center, PO Box 23205
Columbia SC 29224, call (803) 419-9645, or e-mail JCely@clemson.edu.