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During 5 years of Maritime Breeding Bird Atlas work in 2 squares that straddle the Mines Road/ Butler Road in the wilds of southern Kings Co & nw Hants Co, I came to suspect that Swifts were nesting in natural tree sites to a greater extent than may be realized. It was somewhat routine to record Swifts in those squares, often in pairs or larger numbers in some sort of interaction. In 2010 in the western square 20LQ87 I observed a female breaking small twigs off a tree, in flight, as they are reported to do for nesting. She was accompanied by her mate. This was just W of Dead Brook on Butler Road, a very remote place. I theorize that they are nesting particularly in standing dead, or partially dead, white pine. For some reason, even our clear-cutting forestry sector leaves many white pine behind, living & dead. If you frequent these areas you will see numerous sentinal white pine, live or dead. The dead ones have amazing strength & many almost rot in place. Broken tops & hollow trunks are not rare. This is also true for uncut forest. On July 28, 1996, I observed 2 Swifts "entering and exiting a hollow, standing, shell of a tree, surrounded by water, at Black River Lake, east of Methals Dam". I'm sure Bernard Forsythe has told me a similar story. I know our Swifts are in trouble but I'm not convinced that nesting sites is the primary concern, speaking strictly about NS. Rick Whitman On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 10:37 AM, David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com> wrote: > Hi Allison & All, May 4, 2012 > Thanks for your comments. I had hoped that someone up to speed on Swift > nesting would chime in. > > Constructing a tall artificial nest that has the heat storage capacity > of a massive chimney or a large hollow tree [stores enough heat to last cold > nights without becoming hot in the daytime] would be both labor and > materials expensive. > > But in NS at least there may be practicable approaches suggested by > comments in Tufts (1961) to the effect that "Occasionally they resort to > abandoned camps or old unused mills, where they fasten the nest to the > inside wall.... one was placed in a rock lined well..." > > Possible approaches, depending upon contacts and found material, include > discarded concrete culverts installed upright in gravel pit waste heaps, > sono-tubes installed upright in sawdust piles (probably both would need to > be vented near the bottom with small pipes angled upward), 8' towers built > in the woods from windfalls using thick planks cut with a $50 chainsaw > mill, or slabbed poles or stacked walls. > > Yt, Dave Webster Kentville
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