Chimney Swifts

 These birds were not on our life list, even though back ten or so years ago a guide pointed above our heads and said something like "Those dots up there are Chimney Swifts."  I have occasionally added a bird to our life list that I felt I barely saw but I drew the line at dots in the sky.  A different guide some years later said about swifts in general "If you don't consider that seeing a swift, you are never going to get one." (or something to that effect.)

Well, patience paid off.

We were in Manitoba in the beautiful town of Souris walking across their claim to fame, a swinging bridge.  As we stepped onto the other side, Ray looks up in the air and says "There are Chimney Swifts."  I look up and see swooping birds everywhere. 

 I am holding my phone in my hand, opened to the Merlin app.  I press the right button and the phone flashes its opinion.  House Sparrow.  Song Sparrow.  Red-winged Blackbird.  Chimney Swift!

How did you know? I asked Ray as I rapidly and mostly fruitlessly tried to photograph these flitting creatures.  "Well, they weren't swallows," he replied, "and they weren't Purple Martins, so that left Chimney Swifts."

What a great birding companion!  Would I have made the same conclusion?  I don't know.  At the moment he saw them, I was probably trying to photograph a blackbird!

These swifts are sometimes described as cigars with wings. The following photograph shows where that came from.