A Room with a Flue

As I type this, I'm listening to the constant chirping and fluttering of chimney swifts who have made their home in the Jones family chimney. At first, only the softest of sounds are heard until someone will stop and say, "What's that noise?" before we realize our bird friends are back.  Then right before they leave their nest, they get so loud that you even have to crank up the television volume over their flutterings and chirpings! Although it's probably not more than four or five baby chirpers with their parents, it will sound like a flock or two nesting in our chimney!     

Some bird lovers actually build chimney swift towers in their attempts to entice the birds to their chimneys. While we didn't do that, I have considered why they took up residence in our chimney.  Looking back to when they first arrived, adding the pool to the back yard may have been the catalyst. The pool not only attracts small insects that these insectivores ingest, it is a short flight away from an ample water supply. Our back yard provides them with plenty of mosquitoes, flies, and other small critters that are part of their diets.  They are actually good boarders since they are part of housekeeping! That's more than I can say about the boys that live in this household!

Chimney Swifts are declining in numbers in the U.S., partially because homeowners cap their chimneys without consideration to our feathered friends. There were several years that we considered it, too.  But it's a small price to pay knowing we are helping preserve wildlife.  They only require about a foot of chimney space that certainly isn't used in the sweltering heat of Georgia every summer. The least my family can do is allow them a sanctuary for about 30-40 days while their babies hatch and then fly the coop...or chimney in this case!  If they can tolerate all the household noises coming from the Jones family, then a little loud chirping right before the baby birds leave their nest seems like a fair trade-off.

To read more about chimney swifts, you can go to www.chimneyswifts.org.