Thousands of birds call Vancouver Island museum chimney home
Posted May 16, 2021 5:30 pm.
Last Updated May 17, 2021 11:18 am.
COURTENAY (NEWS 1130) – Thousands of birds have decided to make a chimney at a Vancouver Island museum their roosting pit stop.
Curator of natural history at the Courtenay Museum, Pat Trask says Vaux’s swifts migrate from Venezuela and Alaska, normally nesting in hollow trees but have taken up the chimney at the museum for the fourth straight year.
“It’s thousands of them that go down the chimney. Apparently on Saturday night, there was 4,500 of them,” he said.
Trask has even had to rescue some birds when they get stuck at the bottom of the chimney.
“I looked in there yesterday morning and there was 55 birds in the firebox, the boilers, that I had to rescue and let outside,” he said.
He says the museum does what it can to make it as welcoming as possible for the birds, as staff now they expect them every spring.
“It’s just amazing to see all these birds dropping into the chimney. They’re not very big, they’re smaller than your hand, and very docile if you have to pick them up,” he said.
Trask says the birds will continue their journey after staying for a few weeks.
