A Chimney Swift Baby
On a roofing job the other day, Lowell and Marcus found some baby chimney swifts in a chimney they had been instructed to close off. Marcus took pity on the babies inside and rescued them with a makeshift sling which he lowered into the chimney. Then he wisely bequeathed them to Joey, who was overjoyed to be entrusted with their care.
Since one was quite small, they decided maybe that one needed a bird mother. So they put it into a barn swallow nest. Unfortunately, it had disappeared by the next day.
The other is being fed insects that Joey catches for him. At the last report the baby was doing fine. I presume the plan is to release him when he is able to fly. In the meantime, they're getting a rare chance to observe this bird at close range. Chimney swifts never perch anywhere except on vertical surfaces like the inside of chimneys. Even the twigs they use to build their nests are snapped off in mid-flight, and they drink by dipping their beaks in water as they fly over it. Their diet consists entirely of flying insects.
In flight, they look like a black cigar with long slender wings. They chatter a lot in flight.
I wonder where chimney swifts nested before brick chimneys were commonplace. If triple wall steel chimneys take the place of too many of the brick ones, they may have to go back to the older kinds of nesting sites.
I doubt that Joey will ever again see a chimney swift overhead without remembering the one he helped raise.
Since one was quite small, they decided maybe that one needed a bird mother. So they put it into a barn swallow nest. Unfortunately, it had disappeared by the next day.
The other is being fed insects that Joey catches for him. At the last report the baby was doing fine. I presume the plan is to release him when he is able to fly. In the meantime, they're getting a rare chance to observe this bird at close range. Chimney swifts never perch anywhere except on vertical surfaces like the inside of chimneys. Even the twigs they use to build their nests are snapped off in mid-flight, and they drink by dipping their beaks in water as they fly over it. Their diet consists entirely of flying insects.
In flight, they look like a black cigar with long slender wings. They chatter a lot in flight.
I wonder where chimney swifts nested before brick chimneys were commonplace. If triple wall steel chimneys take the place of too many of the brick ones, they may have to go back to the older kinds of nesting sites.
I doubt that Joey will ever again see a chimney swift overhead without remembering the one he helped raise.
posted by Mrs. I at
6:32 PM
2 Comments:
I guess you haven't heard the news; the chimney swift is now in whatever 'Happy Hunting Grounds' exist for deceased birds. :) It died while Joey was staying at our house and it wasn't for lack of flies.
By
Rhoda, at 8/04/2009
By the way, different stuff I've read says that chimney swifts used to nest in hollow trees and caves.
By
Joey, at 8/04/2009
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