In hopes of catching up my numbers for the chimney swift activity this week
around town, I happened on the following information by chance and great
fortune.
For those of you traveling through Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Northern West
Virginia this summer, a stop in Wheeling would be worth your while.
I had a trip scheduled to Wheeling over the end of last week, and to our
amazement we found a very nice old river town waiting for an economy to happen,
but in the meantime, populated by some of the friendliest people and the
neatest
birds.
A side trip out of the city was hard to make since the fascination with
hundreds of constant chimney swifts brought my eyes off the sidewalk and up to
the
rooftops. Being on the river, next to the oldest suspension bridge in the
country, watching the birds was as natural as breathing and took no more
apparatus than ears and eyes.
Imagine being in a river location with leftover stogie factories, victorian
homes, older neighborhoods replete with brick protuberances for the choice of
any swift in search of a roost?
We aimed for Saturday evening, just at dusk, and in the process of finding a
good and visible chimney from the ground brought us southeast of the hospital
to a neighborhood near the Post Office, up from Chapline Road.
The swifts numbered in the six to seven hundreds if a ballpark were offered
at every fifteen block section of the five unique districts.
We finally found a tall freestanding chimney near some residences, one block
southeast of the Wheeling Hospital, and watched many of the last swifts settle
in. The work is not in the counting here, but in locating the focus of the
swirling mob. One has to dance around the neighborhood and get lucky to spot
the aim of the birds. No small task.
Nighthawks travel in the ones, and pretty much can be heard before they are
seen, flying high over the swift concentrations, it seemed.
The old suspension bridge and run down hotel provided lighting for the
undersides of the hawks closer to the river, but the population of nighthawks
here
seems to be well and geometrically spread out over a large area.
Oglebay resort is not far out of town and the former Waddington Farms
properties, given by the former owners for the use of the public, provides a
great
variety of habitat.
Hilly, forested, and conserved, Oglebay is worth a stop. Deer meander
through the park, and the family oriented zoo and butterfly exhibits are open
daily.
There is enough unpopulated and quiet terrain to find many birds, especially
in the right seasons, however we had some of note.
A few birds below the mansion and museum were spotted:
White breasted nuthatch 2
Chipping sparrows 6
Domestic muscovy ducks 8
Blue Jays 4
Juvenile cardinals 3
Wheeling is located not far off Route 70 West, West Virginia exit 2B-1B and
0.
There is a small streamlike estuary of the river I think on the campus of
Wheeling Jesuit University, at the first exit you find.
Ohio River birds were not remarkable and seemed to prefer other locations off
the river, as we recorded no shore birds on the coastline along the island or
the main downtown River Walk. I would not be able to see my canoe paddle in
this water, if you catch my meaning.
I can recommend this city as a good Chimney Swift observation spot. Our
count at the one observed location: 450-600 estimated.
Ellen O'Donohue
Vienna VA
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