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August 11, 1983 - A Swift in the ChimneyAugust 11, 1983 The News - Review CHIMNEY SWIFT - -This swallow -like bird never stops to rest as it endlessly pursues flying insects. Its winter home will be in the Amazon or other parts of South America. Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh A Swift in the Chimney The summer is running away from us. New potatoes at the farmstands, fresh corn and tomatoes -- the signs are everywhere. The golden rye fields have been threshed and the dried straw baled and stored for later use. Kids are down at the creek bridge catching snappers. Young birds have left their nest and the swallows are already congregating on the wires getting ready to head south. A bird that people often confuse with the swallow is the chimney swift. Like the swallow, it is an insect eater, but unlike the swallow it is never found on the ground or perched on a tree limb. They are always on the move, except at night, when they roost. The chimney swift is one of the easiest birds to recognize in flight for its fast, fluttering curved wings, its irratic flight and cigar shaped body clearly put it in a class of its own. Chimney swifts are found all the way to the east along the eastern seaboard and as far west as the Rockies in Colorado. In earlier times, before man came on the scene, they nested exclusively in hollow trees, but as man has changed much of the land, these trees have become less and less common. This is particularly true of old hollow trees that 1 break off and make ideal natural chimneys. Seems everyone's looking for firewood and any old tree is usually downed by the saw for firewood as soon as it is spotted. Because of the lack of natural sites, the swift has taken to man's unused chimneys -- hence the name chimney swift. In China a slightly different version of our chimney swift builds a nest that is used in the famous Bird Nest Soup. The nest is made of sticks and is glued to the side of vertical walls, using a special saliva that is excreted from glands in the mouth. It is this substance that gives the famous taste and texture to the bird nest soup. Our local chimney swift uses the same method of attachment of twigs to the walls of chimneys. Its specially- designed feet and tail help it cling to the wall while working on the nest. Its most likely position is clinging to the side of something -- even when it sleeps. It is a life of continual flight, except for these brief periods of nest building and the rearing of its young. Sticks for the nest are snapped off while the bird is in flight. Now you see it, now you don't to see one plummet down a chimney brings to mind, "now you see it now you don't." Just a short time ago a young mother called me up and asked if I would come to her house to remove "something moving inside her woodstove chimney ". Being interested in what could have gotten down, I agreed to take a look. When I arrived at the house, I was greeted by the mother and her two . children. She was concerned because once before she had had a screech owl get down the chimney and didn't want another problem. Here in this beautiful' home with its thick carpet and spotless drapes, all I could envision was my opening the stove door and out flying a soot -laden starling that would immediately head for a window and start dusting itself off on the draperies. Needless to say, I opened the door very slowly and peeked in with flashlight in hand. I looked up and down and I could see no bird. I was just about to give up, and tell her that the bird had probably flown back up the chimney when the girl said, "There it is" and sure enough there, it was -- a chimney swift clinging to the side of the stove. No wonder I hadn't seen it! I was looking where birds usually rest on the bottom of the stove or in the horizontal stovepipe. I reached in ever so carefully and cupped my hands around the bewildered trembling swift. It was a bit sooty but none the worse off. After a few drops of water down its bill from the kitchen faucet we took the bird down to the bay, to release it. Up it flew in what seemed to us a flight of joy. Quick wing beats and then a glide, quick wing beats and then a glide, and he disappeared out of sight, probably in pursuit of those devilish green flies or the ever present mosquitoes tha roam our ay ronts. We wondered where it would spend the night. Would it again attempt to go down some unused chimney? Or would it spend a bit more time and look for an older hollow broken off tree that had no flues or damper to confine it? Whatever its future, I hope chimney swifts will always be with us for they not only supply us with a natural Flytrap but they also display for us true freedom in flight.