Ears are a ringing, eyes are watered and red, ankle is a screaming and the body is pretty tired, but … there is a HUGE smile on my face as my head swirls with new ideas for this year’s Haunted Trail (link here – mental reminder, get the 2024 trail post out). Our haunt team is fresh off attending TransWorld, the commercial haunt industry convention held annually in downtown St. Louis, MO (link here). Unfortunately, the name has taken on additional connotations outside the haunt world, but to those in the scare business (vendors and consumers) it’s our super bowl event for educational seminars, animatronics showcase, decor extravaganza and industry hobnobbing. Note, this event is technically not open to the general public as there are commercial requirements to attend (profit/investment thresholds, customer numbers etc.), although that seems to have loosened up a bit this year. If a product is targeted for the horror genre, it is on display and therefore caution does apply. As you would expect, there are very graphic displays/products and children (including those easily offended adults) are STRONGLY discouraged. Probably says something about our team, but this event is pure enjoyment. Downside is the recovery needed the following day (“I have snores, boars, flasks, do the wishes???…sorry honey, I can’t hear with all this ringing in my ears”).
While I attempt to figure out what Linda is trying to say (it is possible I don’t want to know hehehe), going to relax a bit and feature a series that perfectly fits my tired and blurry eyes.
Hit the jump to read about this aerial acrobat.
I am going to openly proclaim this series of shots is not going to be adorning any walls or earning honors beyond maybe the “exercise” community. Honestly, that pretty much goes for any field work pertaining to the four members of the Apodidae family and the 8 members of their sister family the Hirundinidae. They are also referred to as Swifts and Swallows respectively and are ALL Pixie Stix guzzling Barons of the sky (link here).
Before the call comes in from our perpetually disgruntled legal team, I am aware the Purple member of the Hirundinidae does not actually have the Swallow moniker, but we all know what it should have been named – hell, it isn’t really even purple! The Intrigued bird naming board does accept Little Gods of War (Mars-tens). I digress, blame our lawyers. Anyway, as I was saying, this family of birds is a pain in the ass to get in the tin and exponentially harder the larger the glass. My arms end up being noodles after spending any time trying to keep a specimen in the viewing area. Crispness is a distant concern.
Have I given myself enough excuses for not executing yet..Linda would say in her best James Earl Jones voice “The whine is strong with this one” hehehe. I did get some shots in the tin and those are enough to officially declare the check for a White-Throated Swift. This was a lifer for me!
I have to give Linda credit for this find. We were on our trip through Arizona last January…oops, did it again, make that last January before this more recent January. We made basecamp in Apache Junction, AZ allowing Ron to fly out and spend a week birding with us. We hit a lot of the hot spots in the area like Lost Dutchman State Park and Superstitious Mountain with mixed results when Linda noticed an intriguing eBird report not too far away at a place called Canyon Lake, specifically the Acacia Picnic Area. We were surprised to learn that it was more like a mountain lake as the drive included incredible mountain views before descending to the lake area surround by “steep, red-rock canyon walls” (link here). An absolutely beautiful area with a road that followed along the banks of the lake with several picnic areas scattered about. It was January, so the place was pretty much to ourselves – guessing this place gets packed during the later months. Note, you need buy a permit to “park” there – Linda stayed in the car with the pups.
While driving along, a flock of plump black and white missiles caught my eye.
In my defense they were a ways up on the surrounding cliffs owing to the heavy cropping on these shots. Immediately unmistakable that this was a completely new bird to me. I have photographed all of the Swallow family, but only one of the Swifts, the Chimney. The Swallows are not that beefy, nor does the Chimney have the white highlights – looked like an Oreo cookies with wings.
For the next 30 minutes Ron and I mimed out the battle of Pearl Harbor trying to keep our barrels on tiny erratic Mitsubishi A6Ms (without the big red zeros of course). Incredibly thankful my elbow was still intact at that point in the year.
The White-Throated Swift is a native of the western states with a year-round presence on the southern borders of California, Arizona, New Mexico, then down into the Baja and Central America. During the smoochie season they push northward even as far as the western Canada border. They do not seem to be a big fan of the coastal regions of northern California and up.
Cornell provided some interesting tidbits to pass along. Typical of most of the Swifts (and Swallows) they are a very social birds roosting with hundreds of others on the rocky cliffs. They tend to swirl around the nest area as they take their turns to enter. My favorite line “Occasionally one misses, bouncing off the entrance to rejoin the swirling mass.” Allow me to translate “Hey Red, you need to lay off the Oreos you porker”. It appears they are adrenaline junkies (now the Pixie Stix behavior makes sense). “Courting birds make spectacular dives toward earth, one clinging to the back of the other, separating as they pull out of the plummet just above the ground.” Thankfully we humans prefer date nights at a “drive-in” versus a “dive-in”.
Going to put a wrap on it there, I think I might have played the “I can’t hear all the things you are wanting me to do” excuse one too many times as I can see out of the corner of my eye Linda is coming at me with a bullhorn. Take care, welcome to March and have a hauntingly good rest of your week.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Swifts are great. True aerial acrobats. Great job capturing that swift moving swiftly. Did you see any ghosts of Transworld Airlines at Transworld? What a blast for you, haunt heads!
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Thanks Tim! Lift weights are take pictures of Swifts will produce the same effect ha. Dating yourself with that Transworld Airlines reference – suspect there still some phantoms about after that Flight 800 fiasco. I have to say, of the events that occur throughout the year, this convention is definitely in the top 10 if not top 5 … below our own haunted trail of course hehehe. Appreciate you stopping in.
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I wasn’t sure you were writing about a real or imagined Transworld event! I didn’t know that industry existed. Enjoyed the post, as always, and glad to hear you are taking it easy while you heal.☀️
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Transworld (again, badly named) is massive and the eye opener is the amount of revenue the haunt reaps purely based on their ability to pay for the products they have on sale (talking 20K+). Maybe we should start charging for our trail! Just a great community of people focused on scaring the crap out of one another. I’ve injured myself a plenty over the years, this ankle issue has to be one of the most annoying ever – see surgeon this week (fingers crossed he doesn’t cancel again) and hopefully find out it is healed and just have to deal with the pain until it gets strengthened up to where I need it. Temps warming up, I HAVE to get back on the trails!!
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Injuries are the worst, especially when you’re used to being very active. I will cross my fingers for you, too, that you can see the surgeon this week & get a thumbs up! ☀️
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You did the trick Lisa as the surgeon has released me. Still have a long ways to go to get it back to where it needs to be, but at least I can start dispensing with all the pent up energy at little at a time (Linda refers to it as the crazies and is constantly telling me to stop pacing around the house ha). Thanks for the well wishes!
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Congrats on the White-Throated Swift lifer-add! The only swift we have on the east coast is the Chimney Swift, which I have flying around overhead in the summer with the Barn Swallows and Purple Martins. I consider all of them a fun challenge to photograph from my gravity chair! 😁 Isn’t that laziness, LOL!
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Thank you Donna. We pretty much only have the Chimney here in the Midwest as well so it was a real treat to see this new bird – hard on the arms though – never thought of going the gravity chair option…wheels a turning..an I drag one of those out in the field with me .. claiming ankle injury of course so nobody thinks I’m being lazy hehehehe – although, with these areal acrobats I might need a gyro mechanism. Appreciate you stopping by and take care.
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This was a fun post, Brian. 💕When I was in my twenties, my father made a marten house for our yard. The first year, we had bluebirds, but the second year, the martens moved in. They were always interesting to watch! ❤️
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Glad you enjoyed Cheryl! We have never had luck luring Purple Martins to our residence as a Mosquito abatement technique, but our neighbor has finally managed to get a small colony at his houses – I won’t mention what he has to do to the hordes of House Sparrows to make that happen. Bluebirds are not a bad conciliation, but I can see where the Purples would drive them out. Thanks for dropping in and have a great rest of your week.
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so, on a bad ankle, you were exercising with The Beast, swinging it around at supersonic speeds trying to catch these “swift” bullets. I’m may have to agree with Linda a bit on this. We just saw their swallow cousins in SC. Jan was whirling like a dervish trying to catch them on “film”. A few turned out OK, and may, or may not, be part of a future post. BTW, head to LaSalle by the river for the Chimney’s.
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Well, in my defense, this was Jan 2024 so it was prior to the “incident”, however I am sure it was not good on the healing of the elbow due to the “incidient” that year. Word of caution.. NEVER agree with Linda when it comes to my health – if it was up to her I’d be wearing a bubble wrap suit. Jan is going to develop Popeye arms chasing the Swallows down. Will keep LaSalle in minde, I usually just pop over to Singing Woods to get the Chimney check for the year.
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I tried to get a White-throated Swift, and managed ONE shot. The swift occupied maybe 12 pixels of the photo. Got him at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I just cannot imagine how you managed these very clear photos of the Oreo Missile! Great work!
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It’s a workout isn’t it!! Much like many of my field outings, I am glad I never have to show all the “misses” and can simply hit the delete key on 99.9% of the shots hehehe. We head back out to Arizona in just under 2 weeks now so hoping to get a second chance at them – if you don’t see a post on it, then you will know I wasn’t successful! Worst case I’ll drown my sorrows in Vegas. It is Timberdoodle season here now, so I’ll be out in the fields this week trying to capture their gravity defying mating rituals. Appreciate you dropping in Sam
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One of my mentor birders, Starre, called them flying cigars. I love swifts. We used to have many chimney swifts in downtown Manhattan. Sadly, many chimneys are gone or capped.
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I like the term flying cigars – perfectly describes their look and behavior (without the ashes ha). I didn’t think about their preferred habitat getting restricted – about the only area we see them around here is a few parks that have tried to mimic their habitat – actually, one place near me put up a full chimney sans house in a middle of a field – apparently it worked as they are abundant there. As always, appreciate you coming by and take care.
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These are great photos of very fast-moving birds, Brian. While I’m lucky enough to see them all summer long here in Colorado Springs (the largest breeding colony is at Garden of the Gods), they are usually high in the sky and all my photos show a black dot in the blue sky. I love to hear their high-pitched calls.
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Thank you Tanja! How cool you get to experience these Oreo Missiles locally during your summer months. I will definitely take note of that colony at GotG for the next time we are out there. We are heading back to AZ in just under two weeks so fingers crossed I’ll get another chance to tin them – arms are not going to be happy about that. I will have to take note of their calls when I am out there – don’t remember hearing them, although if they are near the pitch of my Linda’s voice I may not be able to hear them hehehe.
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I hope your camera will capture all the birds on your wish list.
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I’m up for the task, but I still need to take it easy on the ankle. Was released by the surgeon this week, but as anyone who has broken something knows, the hard part is the rehab and recovery. Best part is I won’t have to wear that damn boot while birding yes!! Thanks for dropping in Tanja, appreciate it.
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“Taking it easy” does not seem to part of your vocabulary, Brian. But I hope you will manage to! 😊
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My reputation precedes me ha! Will do my best, but those rocky trails out in AZ can be nasty on the ankles.
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If you won’t take it easy, at least be careful! 😊
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