The Vaux's Swifts have returned to the Courtenay Museum Chimney

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

On Thursday, April 29 we headed down to a parking lot behind the Courtenay Museum to see if the Vaux’s Swifts that are in the area might fly down the chimney to roost for the evening. Evidently they have been seen coming to this chimney for the last few years around this time of year and one person we spoke to said they will likely be arriving here for another week or more. The Vaux’s Swifts spend the winter in Mexico and breed in large hollow trees found in old growth forests in BC, Washingon and Oregon. Because of this their numbers are in decline as logging removes their breeding habitat. 

 

The birds feed on insects and their shape has been described as cigars with wings.  On Thursday we were joined by close to 15 other people who had heard about this chimney roosting behavior. We arrived at 8:00 pm armed with binoculars and a camera with a telephoto lens.  Their arrival to the chimney seems to depend on the weather and so you don’t know when they might arrive. No sooner did we arrive and we began to see the swifts flying in groups over the chimney (see photo below) . They then disappeared for a few minutes only to return again for another fly over. Then all of a sudden they began to spiral around and just like Santa they headed down the chimney (see photo above) . By 8:30 it seemed to be all done! Presumably they like the rough interior of the chimney and spend the night huddled together along the edges of the chimney. But how do they navigate all crowded together as they descend into the chimney?  

 It was hard to estimate the number of birds on this particular night but it was likely around 150 birds. The Vaux’s Swifts have been here for the last few days and other people we spoke to said that other nights they had seen upwards of 200 birds but other times virtually none. We returned another night - May 1 and saw an amazing 850 or so birds descend into the chimny. Click this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doly-jcadTk  to see the bird tornado in action.   So if you want to see an unusual birding event that you won't find many places in Canada check this out!