It was an exciting September for one of the Twin Cities’ premier chimney swift colonies, located right in our backyard at Mahtomedi High School.

Chimney swifts are small, stout birds that are unable to perch, but can easily cling to vertical surfaces. They spend their days flying around eating mosquitoes and other insects. In late summer, after they finish nesting, they spend their nights huddled shoulder-to-shoulder in chimneys (which they adopted as human settlers replaced hollow trees, their historical roosting sites, with houses and factories).

According to Audubon Minnesota, chimney swift populations have plummeted more than 50 percent in the past 40 years as changes in how and how many chimneys are constructed affect the number of roosting sites available. Many efforts are underway around the state and country to build dedicated structures for swifts.

Several years ago, MAGI members discovered a colony of chimney swifts living in the Mahtomedi High School chimney. Each summer evening at dusk the birds return to their roost, peppering the sky by the hundreds as they circle the chimney and then dive in, one by one. Many an evening has found “swift watchers” gathered at the nearby middle school patio taking in the amazing site. At the end of August, a small gathering of community members counted more than 1,000 birds flying in to roost for the night.

In mid-September, the colony welcomed a few more as Brittany from the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and Joanna Eckles of Audubon Minnesota released seven young swifts — including the one in the photo above — that had been hand-raised after being brought into the center for rehabilitation over the summer. MAGI members cheered as colony members swooped down to welcome the newcomers.