Checking out the Vaux’s Swifts at the Courtenay Museum

Heading down the chimney

By Keith and Heather Nicol

   On Saturday , May 2 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 here for the next few weeks. 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 Saturday we were joined by close to 15 other people who had heard about this chimney roosting behavior. We arrived at 6:45 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. Around 7:30 pm we began to see a swarm of Vaux’s Swifts swoop over head and fly over the chimney. They then disappeared for a few minutes only to return again for another fly over. Then they began to spiral around and just like Santa they headed down the chimney. Presumably they like the rough interior of the chimney and spend the night huddled together along the edges of the chimney. 

The Vaux's Swifts soaring above the Courtenay Museum

    No sooner had this group headed down that another swarm of 40-50 birds did their fly by and after disappearing they reappeared and like the first group dropped down into the chimney.  Over the next few minutes a total of 200 birds had descended into the chimney!!

Video of the Vaux's Swifts streaming into the Museum Chimney

One of the birders we spoke said that they have counted up to 3600 birds drop down into this chimney in one evening and 2 nights ago they counted 750 birds!! Needless to say these birds are NOT social distancing in this chimney. Birding is apparently on the upswing with Covid 19 and you don’t have to be a avid birder to be impressed by this phenomenon so be sure to check it out.