Posted: 4/29/2024
Celebrating the Installation of the East Campus Chimney Swift Tower
By Dakota Altman / Platte Basin Timelapse
Like the Eye of Sauron in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels watching over Middle-earth, a new tower has emerged from the urban prairie outside Hardin Hall awaiting its true calling. This tower does not hold the power to summon hoards of orcs; it is instead the harbinger of a beautiful and fascinating migratory bird.
Chimney swifts as their name might suggest have an important affinity to brick or stone house chimneys, yet this was not always the case. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Chimney swifts roosted and nested in woodlands before the advent of chimneys. Through the decline of important woodland habitats and the construction of cities and townships with abundant vertical-hollow structures (i.e. chimneys), the formerly known American swift quickly adapted and its name followed suit.
So aptly named for the bird it hosts, the tower is known as a “Chimney Swift Tower”. These towers have taken on many different shapes and sizes, generally resembling a tall chimney-like structure with a rough surface on the inside for the swifts to grip onto and an opening at the top where they will enter during roosting and exit for on-the-wing feeding.
Beginning around mid to late April here in Nebraska the sweet chittering heard high above in the spring clouds signals the swift's arrival, easily recognizable by their cigar-shaped bodies and boomerang wings searching for flying insects. Chimney swifts migrate thousands of miles from wintering grounds in the upper reaches of the Amazon River basin in eastern Peru, through northwestern Brazil, and down into northern Chile.
Swift towers offer these palm-sized birds a safe refuge as they gather in the hundreds in the spring and fall. Lincoln’s Irving Middle School has been prime real estate for the chimney swifts in its tall brick-red chimney. A group of enthusiastic students, teachers, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s very own ornithologist started the Chimney Swift Club at Irving to encourage people to learn about and care for these valuable insect-eating migratory miracles. The late Dr. Mary Bomberger Brown was a champion of educating people about our natural world and was the ornithologist who inspired a whole cadre of Irving students and neighbors to look up and watch the evening skies. Dr. Brown's work lives on in many aspects of Nebraska conservation and the recently installed swift tower in Hardin Hall’s prairie was donated to remember Mary’s contributions to bird conservation.
Please join us on Saturday, May 11th starting at 10am at Hardin Hall’s very own tallgrass prairie for a dedication/celebration honoring the installation of the chimney swift tower. The tower was donated by Bluebirds Across Nebraska and our friends at Wild Bird Habitat Store in Lincoln. Our partners will be providing coffee and snacks, and the Maps and More Store will be open during the celebration.
Part of the celebration will include notes about our friend, the late Mary Bomberger Brown, who championed chimney swifts in several ways in Lincoln—including supporting a chimney swift club at Irving Middle School. You will see Mary’s photo on the sign that was recently installed to provide information about the species of bird along the path through the prairie.
We plan to gather in the First Floor Lobby and move outside for a short ceremony. Feel free to share this invitation—the event is free and open to the public.
Swift you later!
