Date: 9/26/26 7:11 pm From: dt via groups.io <dtandelsie...> Subject: Re: [NEBirds] Chimney Swift roost in Kearney
William, this actually sounds similar to what I saw in Gothenburg on August 29th. The darker it got, the more rapidly they disappeared down the chimney, but as some descended, others flew by and circled around, eventually also descending. I watched approx. 200 enter the single chimney in approximately 17 minutes. https://ebird.org/checkli.st/S388114605 Quite a sight ! It would be great if birders who live near these chimneys used as migration roosts monitored them in late summer early fall!
Diane Thomas in Laramie, WY
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On Sat, Sep 26, 2026 at 9:36 PM, William Flack via groups.io<sparvophile...> wrote:
On Thursday evening, Sept. 24, Robin Harding and I watched Chimney Swifts circling over the block with St. Luke's and Central Elementary. I estimated the size of the flock as c. 200 birds. The orbit sometimes moved away, but generally included the St. Luke's chimney; and often, as swifts flew over the chimney, they fluttered a bit or dropped as though checking it out. However, it didn't appear that they were going down the chimney in any numbers. (It was hard to tell whether birds went down the chimney or behind the church, but it appeared that most were doing the latter.) Unfortunately, we had to get to a movie at the World at 7:30, so left the swifts at 7:23, before we could see if they'd actually go down the chimney in numbers.
The following evening (Sept. 25), I returned to the site, arriving at about 7:30. The swifts were again circling, but there numbers appeared to be about half of what they were the previous night—perhaps a different flock, or perhaps many had already gone to roost. This time, the loop in which they were flying always seemed to include the space right above the church. Again, birds passing over the chimney would drop down and flutter a bit, as though checking it out, but would usually resume circling. After a while, though, it appeared that they were starting to go down. It looked like 4–6 birds would drop down into the chimney; and, after that, birds would dip down to check, but no one else would descend for a little while, until another handful went down. My conjecture is that birds that flew down the chimney took some time to find footholds, and until they did, were beating their wings; if additional birds had flown down during this time, they would've interfered with one another, and possibly the whole bunch would've fallen to the bottom. Once this started, the number of circling birds seemed to decline surprisingly quickly, and the last of them were gone by 8 p.m.; presumably, down the chimney, though it didn't seem as though I'd seen that many going into it.
Other accounts make it sound as though large numbers of swifts pour down a chimney, unlike my birds, which seemed to go down a handful at a time. Maybe the St. Luke's flue is narrower than the brick chimney would suggest, and there's not room for all that many birds to go down at once?
