I went with some friends to see Jefferson Starship at the "Taste of MN" event, and while walking from the parking lots along the river east of the Wabasha Bridge, I passed a large tree that appeared dead, with no leaves on it. I noticed a Chimney Swift coursing through its branches, stop quickly on a branch, fluttering its wings, then with a movement of its head, appearing to tear something off of the branches, and was again airborne. There were at least 4 swifts feeding in this manner, which struck me as odd for I have never seen swifts alight anywhere. The birds never actually perched, but balanced themselves with their wings aflutter like I have seen in many bird's copulatory behavior. Perhaps they can't perch? I did not study it further to determine what they were feeding on, and I am wondering if this tree was blighted with worms or caterpillars of some sort, but for 10 minutes I observed this setting, much to my wife's chagrin, and I observed this behavior 20 times from at least 4 birds, probably more. It appeared to me that this was a primary foraging technique for these birds. My friends rolled their eyes at my suggestion of this exciting deduction, which I took to mean it was just as fascinating for them as it was to me. We ate bad food, listened to aging rockers with a beautiful sub for Grace Slick, and watched some people enjoy themselves. Until dark, I was occupied with watching for more aberrant swift behavior, to no avail. If Darwin had visited Harriet Island rather than the Galapagos, this might have been his great epiphany. Well, probably not, maybe that secondary smoke I was in the middle of wasn't tobacco after all. Party on, birder dudes!
Mark Alt Brooklyn Center, MN=20 Hennepin County "Birds are really cool"
