kelly, i dont think that is a chimney swift in the photo!! vic lewis On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 1:26 PM, Kelly Applegate <[email protected]>wrote:
> Hi Everyone, > > I just thought I would share my success attracting chimney swifts to my > backyard this summer. I am the Wildlife Biologist for the Mille Lacs Band > of Ojibwe Department of Natural Resources. We are partnered with the > Minnesota Audubon to promote chimney swift conservation. I have been > experimenting with attracting swifts to artificial nesting "towers" such as > the one seen in the picture. When these towers are placed, it can be > several years before the swifts recognize them as nesting structures. > Knowing this I wanted to speed the process. I have 4 towers on the > reservation and one tower at my home residence. The 4 on the reservation > are unoccupied, my tower at home quickly attracted swifts. Here's the > story. I played a chimney swift vocalizations CD and within an hour I had > a > group of 5 swifts investigating the sound. Amazingly, in the next few > hours > I watched as the swifts played around the tower. Hesitantly, the would > pause in mid-air, take a peek into the tower, chatter in joy, and fly > around > the yard at about 100 miles an hour in a formation like a chinese kite. > Later that day, a swift plunged down the tower and another followed. They > both flew out and revealed themselves as a mated pair by locking into a > glide with their wings held in a V-formation. It was quite an > accomplishment to attract swifts in one day! I believe the recording > played > a major role. Ron Windingstad with Audubon MN and I are planning to make a > recording for distribution to those who have or plan to build a tower for > swifts. I encourage anyone who loves to house birds to consider building a > chimney swift tower, they are a lot of fun! Information for tower > construction can be found at chimneyswifts.org. > > Here's a link to my little backyard pals: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/41189...@n08/?saved=1 > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
