Friday, August 7:Â Overcast skies and rain threatening. Arrived with a new swift watcher at 8:30pm, swifts were swirling about in varying clockwise and counter clockwise patterns. I could hear and see a Common Nighthawk feeding over the Scioto River. At 8:35, the first swift went into the large school chimney. By 8:53. all 350-375 swifts had entered the chimney. A bat was chased away from the pattern of swirling swifts.
Saturday, August 8: A clear skies evening with a breezy sunset. I returned at 8:30 pm but the birds were sparse. I attributed this to a bright sunny summer evening, and it was interesting to see the difference from the night before. By 8:47, the birds were in a tight clockwise pattern, and by 8:48 a few started to enter the chimney. By 9:08, just over 500-520 chimney swifts had entered the chimney. Again, a bat was chased away by swirling swifts who quickly got back into formation. Again I heard the nighthawk “penting.”
I had counted swifts at the same site on Friday, July 24, and at that time there were over 500. It was my first time to count in July and I was surprised of their numbers then.7:58pm the first 15 to 20 swifts arrived
Sunday, August 30: At 8:02 pm, several of the now 40 birds began dipping at the chimney. At 8:04, I observed a clockwise flight of about 50 birds; at 8:05, counter clockwise flight. At 8:08, the first bird went in; by 8:15, about 40 birds were in the chimney; a minute later over 100 had entered. At 8:17, I heard and saw the Dublin nighthawk flying over the Scioto River area near 161. By 8:20, somewhere between 75 to 100 birds are entering the tall chimney each minute. Between 8:30 and 8:34, when the last bird entered, between 550 and 600 birds zipped into the chimney.
By my best estimate, between 1,275 to 1,300 birds were spending the night in the 1919 school building chimney!
Are you interested in counting swifts in Dublin? I plan to be at the Sells Middle School site by 7:00 pm on September 12 and 13. These are Chimney Swift count dates sponsored by the Driftwood Wildlife Association; count data will be submitted to Driftwood as part of their annual Chimney Swift census program. You can find more details on the Columbus Audubon Events Calendar. Please join me!
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