Friday, July 28, 2006

Chimney Swifts

We have a nest of Chimney Swifts in our chimney. It's surprising how loud the babies are -- I guess the sound is amplified by the chimney. 2 weeks ago, 2 of the babies fell down into the fireplace, along with most of the nest and a dead Mourning Dove. I haven't yet figured out how the dove enters into it all, since I don't think they're aggressive birds. We were having a storm, though, and I wonder if the dove got blown into the chimney, got killed and took out the nest on its way down. At any rate, we put the babies in a box overnight and Danny took them to the nature center's infirmary the next day, where they joined MANY other baby swifts in a cage -- all being fed and watered until they fledged.

One baby is still in the nest and and still making plenty of noise! If you want to see what the nest and babies look like, this is a good site. One family of swifts can eat 12,000 insects A DAY, so if I can figure out how to keep the chimney and fireplace from being covered in bird poo, I'll let them nest there every year. Now I have to figure out how to get Jim to go along with THAT scheme!

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