Nesting Vaux's SwiftsMike and Tweeters,

I know of a couple on Mercer Island who had a pair of Vaux's Swifts nest in their Chimney in 2000, and have heard anecdotally of a few others.

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at home.com

----- Original Message -----
From: Scuderi, Michael R NWS
To: 'tweeters at u.washington.edu'
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001 3:51 PM
Subject: Nesting Vaux's Swifts


Hi Tweets,

All through the summer I thought I had roosting Vaux's swifts in my chimney on the West Hill of Kent, but it turns out they are actually nesting there. About two and one-half weeks ago we started to see whitewash on our fireplace glass doors, then about two weeks ago loud chirping started coming from the chimney every 15 minutes or so. Today we got confirmation when one of the nestlings fell out of the nest into our fireplace. Thanks to Russell Link (WDFW) and PAWs I was able to get instructions on how to get the bird back into the nest. I could not go in from the top since the nest was well down the chimney. However, I followed the instructions from PAWs and placed the bird above the damper and whoosh! it was gone clawing up the wall to the nest. Based on the plumage development (completely feathered with beautiful pin feathers in the tail) and the length of time we have been hearing the chirping, the nestlings are about 2 to 3 days from fledging.

Looking at Jewitt, Bent and from what Russell found, chimney nesting is not unusual but it is not common. There is apparently an active site in Port Townsend. Has anyone else out there in Tweeterland had this experience before? The breeding bird atlas indicates some possible breeding occurrences to the north in Seattle, but nothing confirmed (I think they chose our house since we are the only ones on our block with the wildlife sanctuary sign and no cats).

Michael R. Scuderi
Seattle District Corps of Engineers
P.O. Box 3755
Seattle, WA 98124-3755
(206)764-7205
FAX (206)764-4470
michael.r.scuderi at usace.army.mil <mailto:michael.r.scuderi at usace.army.mil>
http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/ersindex.html

"To Serve Man"






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