Swift Night Out

Chimney swift at nest

The chimney swift is among my favorite birds--they are so unique. The Driftwood Wildlife Association has an annual A Swift Night Out to gather information about the numbers of chimney swifts each year. This year the dates are 8, 9, 10 August and 6, 7, 8 September.

So what do you do? You try to find a chimney swift roost, whether a few individuals or hundreds (if you find one with a large number of individuals, please let me know at txbirds@gmail.com). Count the number of birds you see returning to the roost at dusk and send the count to the Driftwood Association by email with the information requested on their website. That's all there is to it.

Chimney swift tower when first built

Inside the tower--a nest!

Wild Bird Rescue, Inc.  has a chimney swift tower that my husband built a few years ago. In prior years, we've had nesting chimney swifts in the tower. Unfortunately, none nested there this year. However, the tower is still an excellent place to release the babies raised at WBR and could serve as a roosting spot (although there is no evidence of that this year.)

Be on the lookout for chimney swifts and report them so we can learn more about these interesting little birds.

Good birding!