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f I get a chance.<br>&gt; cheers<br>&gt; ken< Ken McKenna Box 218 Stellarton NS B0K 1S0 902 752-7644 Hi Steve For what it is worth, here is my take on the numbers. I was away from mid-June this year till mid.-July thus you did not see any reports of dwindling numbers of birds at the Temperance St. roost during this period. Most years, the max. number at the roost is reached in early June . The numbers decline sometimes down to 30-70 birds which I assume are non-breeders. They then start to increase again in mid-July usually peaking by the end of July and then the numbers taper off till the third week of August when it is hard to find any. I know Tree Swallows are out of the nest and flying by the first week of July and I suspect the Chimney Swifts will have young flying by the second week of July and some of these probably make their way back to the roost before they head south. This likely is why there are increasing numbers this time of year. Flycatchers, swallows and the like tend to be some of the first to migrate south. This is my take, but I might be off base with this. As Jim has pointed out in the past, we have found only a few nesting sites so there is a lot to learn about Chimney Swifts. cheers Ken ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen R. Shaw" <srshaw@Dal.Ca> To: <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2011 1:22 PM Subject: [NatureNS] Not so swift? > Hi Ken, Jim, other swift-watchers > As a non-clued-in person reading these regular swift reports, I'm a bit > puzzled by the numbers. > We keep getting notices of gratifyingly (?) large numbers of swifts > entering this Temperance Steet chimney and a few others, but these are > swifts that migrated in some time ago and obviously would have come to > breed. They have been here for some time already in our short summer, so > if they paired off earlier and went off to find nest holes to raise > young, what are they doing roosting nightly 200 strong, 2/3 the way > through July? Who is incubating the eggs or sheltering the young, or > don't swifts do that? Or are these all male roosts, leaving the female > swifts to do all the work back at the nest? Or have they bred > successfully already, so that some of these may be newly fledged > offspring from this year? If the last were the case, you might expect > high numbers roosting just after in-migration, then very low numbers > during breeding elsewhere, then high numbers again after this year's > offspring took wing. Is that what your numbers show, Jim or Ken? > > If instead this means that there are actually 200 or so unmated swifts > loafing around but not breeding, that sounds like an impending population > disaster and cause for concern that the numbers are so high, not the > reverse. Someone please explain. > Steve, Halifax > > Quoting Ken McKenna <kenmcken@eastlink.ca>: >> Ken McKenna >> Box 218 Stellarton NS >> B0K 1S0 >> 902 752-7644 >> >> Hi all >> On July 19, I counted 200 Chimney Swifts going in the Temperance St, >> schol chimney. First birds entered 8:52 and last 9:20. Most of the birds >> entered 9:01-9:02. It was clear, calm and 24C. >> >> Tonight July 22, the weather took a noticeable turn for the worse as I >> was heading to view the swifts. Wind came up and the sky quickly >> blackend and the temp. dropped to 20C. As I arrived at 8:39, there was a >> nice group above the chimney and a number were already going in. I noted >> 23 going in at the time, but I think I missed a lot. It was another 5 >> minutes before the bulk went in for the evening, but there were >> trickling numbers till I left at 9. My count was 164, but I would not >> consider this an official count as I think I missed quite a number. Will >> try for a better count tomorrow night if I get a chance. >> cheers >> ken >> >
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