The Nature of Things

The Chimney Swifts are back. Let the summer begin. I heard their distinctive twittering in flight over my yard on Sunday afternoon. Looking up, I saw three of the little birds barreling around the sky over the yard in their iconic "bat-out-of-hell" flight. Chimney Swifts could not be mistaken for any other kind of bird - except perhaps another variety of swift like the Vaux , but we don't have those here so identification is easy. It's not just their constant twittering calls; their bodies are unique, looking like a big cigar from tip of beak to tip of tail, with long, slender wings attached. The birds seem to be mostly wing and that is appropriate since they are creatures that live their lives on the wing, eating, drinking, mating, even sleeping in flight. Those scythe-shaped wings cut through the air very efficiently, thus sending the birds on their very fast jaunts from here to there. In Yoda-speak, swiftly they fly; well-named they are. Those efficient wings are ...

It's no April Fool's joke! The Chimney Swifts are back! I first heard them in the skies over my yard during the just past weekend, but I was never able to look up in time to see them. These little cigar-shaped birds fling themselves like torpedoes across the sky. They fly like the wind and one has to be quick and look to the right spot in order to see them before they have moved on. Finally, on Monday, I was able to spot them and follow them as they barreled their way in their chittering flight through my air space.  Their arrival was not a surprise. I expect to see them every spring around the same time that the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds arrive, so I had been on the lookout for them for a couple of weeks. They announce their presence with their chittering calls as they fly, and they are usually heard before they are seen, but that first sighting of the birds always makes me smile because they are one of my very favorite summer visitors. And the swifts are here for all of ...

In just a few days now, we will see the official beginning of spring. We have looked for the unofficial beginning over the last several weeks and at times we thought that we saw it peeking through the bare limbs of the trees or shining through the feathers of the goldfinches as they took their leave of us and headed north. But we were fooled. Winter maintained its grip. It's only in recent days that we have again begun to hope that the dreary gray season has almost reached its end. There's one way that we'll know for sure that winter is over and spring is here to stay. It's when the Chimney Swifts return. Typically, in my yard, that is in the first week of April, but warm weather is returning earlier in these years of global warming and perhaps the swifts will adjust their timetable accordingly. I love Chimney Swifts. They are among my favorite summer visitors. Perpetually in motion, they live life on the wing and they never fail to cheer me with their with their amazin...

One of my favorite summer birds is back in town. The little Chimney Swifts blew in over the weekend. I first heard them in my chimney on Saturday night. Sunday, I saw the pair flying over the backyard. I'm guessing that swifts were named for the way they fly - very swiftly. They fly like a bird out of hell, as if the devil were right on their tail feathers. And they twitter as they fly. Not the silent, keyboard kind of twittering but the noisy, chattering twitter of a bird that just seems happy to be alive. Swifts around the world have declining populations primarily because of loss of habitat. They need a rough, vertical surface on which to roost and to build their nests. They have very weak legs that are not meant to support perching but those feet can cling to rough surfaces like the bricks in a chimney. In the past, when most houses that were built had chimneys that were open to the sky and to the birds, the little Chimney Swift flourished. But today, most houses eith...