[birding] Swift Watch

[Tasha Leonard]

My husband and I just happened to be walking by this particular chimney on
campus yesterday evening at around 7:30 pm
and we stood right below the chimney for over a half an hour, and watched as
first one and then a couple thousand Vaux's Swifts swirl into it. 
No I didn't actually count them (like Molly did that one evening in downtown
Corvallis a few years ago. I think she counted 3,276 that evening) but every
time we thought that we were down to the last 150 or so, more swifts would
appear from the horizon, seemingly out of nowhere and join the swirling
cloud. It was quite a sight since you can stand almost directly below the
chimney. I would have loved to have a digital video camera inside the
chimney. Many times the chimney appeared to get too full and the swifts
would dive bomb the chimney and turn away at the last second. After about 5
minutes, they would start going in again. 

My question is, if the swifts are back again tonight, is it the same basic
group of swifts in this particular chimney or do swifts spend only one night
in a chimney before moving on in their migration? 
 

Tasha Leonard 

-----Original Message-----
From: birding-bounces at midvalleybirding.org
[mailto:birding-bounces at midvalleybirding.org] On Behalf Of Todd & Susan
Brown
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2010 8:31 AM
To: Birding
Subject: [birding] Swift Watch

Last evening between 7:30 and 8 pm, from an upstairs window in our home,  we

could see above the roof tops, there was a gathering of  many 100's of 
Vaux's Swifts, swirling over the large chimney at the rear of Wiegand Hall 
on the corner of  30th and Campus Way. We were not able to watch long, but 
it appeared some might be going in and out.

Susan Brown 


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