Chimney swifts are disappearing in Wisconsin; fixing up your home is one way to help

If you hear something that sounds like gremlins chattering in your old brick chimney this July, don`t panic — you probably just have baby chimney swifts. 

After a long day spent snapping up insects and flying through the summer sky, chimney swifts return home, helicoptering down brick chimneys to chicks waiting in a teacup-sized nest of twigs glued together with spit. 

Watching these aerial acrobatics is "a special treat," according to Stanley Temple, an emeritus professor of conservation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison...

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Ken Notes: These and the swallows and bats eat pounds of insects, so keeping them around is a good thing...