BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
DAMON RUNYON AND ECCLESIASTES
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
The quotation begins - "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," but then the writer's philosophy cuts in. Runyan finished with "but that is the way to bet." Ecclesiastes ends up with the somewhat more profound, "time and chance happeneth to them all."

Chimney Swifts

This is certainly true in the world of birds and specifically for this week's species, the swift! On Nantucket our only swift is the Chimney Swift, Chaetura pelagica. Swifts are small fast-flying birds that almost no one ever gets to see close-up. If you do spot one in the air you probably think you're seeing a swallow.

This was true for the Swedish scientist, Linnaeus, back in 1758 when he provided the name Hirundo pelagica for our Chimney Swift. Strangely he called it a 'saltwater swallow' - wrong on both counts. Later examination of the needle-like tail feathers caused the Chimney Swift to be moved out of swallows into swifts. The genus name may be corrected but once the species name is given, it sticks.

Swifts are if nothing else - fast! Some feel they are the fastest fliers of all, even outracing a pursuing Peregrine Falcon. Both species have been clocked at over 200 miles per hour. They are also members of a fascinating family of birds, Apodidae, meaning, 'footless ones.' This family also includes all the hummingbirds. Hummers can at least perch, but not walk. Swifts can only cling to the side of a surface like a chimney or the trunk of a tree. They spend almost all their lives in flight, even catnapping up there.

Chimney Swifts have greatly benefited from the settlement of eastern North America. Before the building of so many chimneys, their only nesting spots were inside hollow trees. They quickly adapted to the thousands of chimneys erected on our landscape, often unused by humans during the nesting season. Suddenly there were many perfect nesting spots available, vertical surfaces and sheltered from the weather.

How can a nest be attached to such a place? Swifts have something in common with spiders in that a key component of their home construction is their own spit. They use their own saliva to attach bits of sticks and leaves together on the chimney wall. In China, these are the nests that are the source of a local delicacy - bird's nest soup. Email me if you would like the recipe.

The nest may be as far as 22 feet down a chimney. The three to six eggs rest in a little structure of sticks and dried saliva and this is where the little swifts, blind for the first ten days of their life, start out. Think of the first views of the world young swifts must have! When finally ready to fly, they creep and cling their way to the top of the cavity, perhaps the longest walk they'll ever make, before launching themselves into the air, where they'll spend the rest of their waking lives. An average life span for one of these flying cigars is four years, although one made it all the way to 14.

Goodness, these birds spend all their time flying high in the sky. How can we know their age? The answer is a clever trap that skims off a few of the birds as they burst from the chimney tops in the morning. Handling these birds is a fascinating event for they know nothing of humans and have no fear. To quote one bander, "When held in the hands they would snuggle between the fingers confidently; and when held against the clothes they would wriggle under the folds of the garments and contentedly go to sleep."

Banding also provided the answer to where these birds go when they leave our shores. When Arthur Cleveland Bent wrote of this species in the early 1900s his comment about their winter range was "Unknown, but probably over the dense rain forest of the Amazon Valley, in Brazil." This proved a good guess because now we know these day-flying migrants wing right across the Gulf of Mexico to the jungles of eastern Peru.

In summer on Nantucket your ears will give you the first clue that swifts are about. Listen for a high-pitched twittering call, coming from way above you but from a rapidly moving source. Watch for small gray birds, whose flickering flight may first make you think of swallows. You can expect to find them in Nantucket's skies until September.

If you see a race between swift and falcon,

bet on the swift … est! I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. The Maria Mitchell Association sponsors bird walks on Tuesday and Saturday mornings starting at 8 a.m. from the corner of Vestal and Milk Streets. There is a fee. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@comcast. net.