24 NEBRASKAland • JUNE 2018
city's architecture and urban design.
An elementary school and local
conservationists in Portland, Oregon,
raised awareness and succeeded in
protecting a large de-commissioned
chimney attached to their school
because it served as an important
migratory roost site for thousands of
Vaux swifts, western counterparts
to the chimney swifts, and provided
a perfect environmental education
opportunity for the school that now
hosts hundreds of spectators gathering
to watch the birds descend to their
nighttime roost on fall evenings.
And even in my own home
neighborhood at Irving Middle School
where I first saw those swifts several
years ago, a small group of enthusiastic
teachers, a University of Nebraska
ornithologist (and Irving alumnus),
and a group of students formed an after-
school Chimney Swift Club, now in its
fourth year, to learn and help educate
their classmates, local neighborhood
and city about the beauty and value
of these remarkable little birds and
celebrate the wildlife among us.
It is hard to believe at a glance
that a small cigar-shaped brown bird
twittering above our urban forest here
in the Plains can connect us to far-
flung places half a world away, and
either despite us or because of us,
is making a life in an increasingly
modern world. ■
Above: The communal roosts of chimney swifts can number in the hundreds or thousands during migration. Like bats, they will
roost in tight clusters for protection and warmth.
Opposite: A swift may eat thousands of flying insects before returning to the roost each night. If bats are the night shift then swifts
are the day shift, aerial insectivores and nature's pest control agents, sweeping up our big Nebraska skies.
Swifts do not perch upright like most
birds. With specially designed claws,
they perch by clinging to rough surfaces,
usually bricks and mortar of interior
walls.
Irving's students and teacher sponsors helped
developed an after-school Chimney Swift Club to
educate their classmates, local neighborhoods and the
city about these remarkable little birds.
