Birding Friends:
My friend Adele and I watched a huge Vaux's Swift flock tonight as it came
in to roost at a chimney in Enumclaw, WA. We counted 435 birds! We arrived
in drizzly rain at 6:15pm. Temp was 58 degrees and a large flock of about
80 birds was already flying and calling overhead. They would fly back and
forth. At times the flock would disappear and then come back, and then the
birds would pick up speed and whirl above the chimney. Several birds would
dive close to the chimney but would not enter. Finally at 6:35 we started
seeing birds drop into the chimney. We trained our bins on the top of the
chimney and counted 80 birds as they dropped in. Between then and 7:15 we
would watch and several more groups dropped in, including one huge group of
190 birds! Obviously we counted by tens. After 7:15 we thought the show
was done, except for just a few birds. But they apparently found some more
birds because another group of 54 came in and flew into the chimney at 7:30.
After that there were a few stragglers, but it was dark and the swift show
was over by 7:40. It never stopped drizzling, but we were too excited to
notice, and we sat on a bench under a covering. What a phenomenom this is,
especially when the flock starts to swirl just above the chimney.
I wonder where all of these birds find room to roost? This brick chimney is
only about 30 feet tall, by 2 feet square. It is located in an old brick
theater in which they still show movies. It's the Chalet Theater at 1721
Wells St in Enumclaw. I'm sure the birds are noisy. I wonder if people can
hear them during the movie.
I'll be sending our census count into the Second Annual Swift Night Out
website. I'll be interested to hear how our count measures up to some of
the Chimney Swift counts back east and to the Vaux's Swift count in
Portland.
Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA
linusq at att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lynn & Carol Schulz" <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
To: "Rainier Audubon" <wa-rainier at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 3:59 PM
Subject: Swift Night Out


> Hi Friends:
> On Sept 2 there was a message on Tweeters about the Second Annual Swift
> Night Out (see
> below). I talked to a friend in Enumclaw, and he went down to the old
> theater in town last night to see if there were any Vaux's Swifts flying
> around the brick chimney as they had done in the past. He counted over
200,
> so a friend and I will head to Enumclaw tonight to try to see and count
this
> roosting flock. Maybe a few folks would like to join us. This flying
> into chimneys to roost peaks about this time of year, as the flocks get
> ready to migrate south.
> Fred's directions are spotty, because we had already discussed them on the
> phone. As you drive into Enumclaw from Auburn on hwy 164 go thru the
first
> light in town. Drive to the next
> intersection, turn left on Wells St and park anywhere on that street. Sit
on a park
> bench and look toward the old theater which has a brick chimney. You will
> be looking NNE.
> Carol Schulz
> DesMoines
> 206-824-7618
> linusq at att.net
> ----------------------------
> Sent to me Sat, Sept 7
> Carol:
> Went down to check on the Swift tonight. Got there at 6:45 (all times
> P.M.) and there were already 14 circling above the theatre. During the
next
> half hour there would be thirty + flying around, you have to be careful
and
> not give up as they disappear for stretches of up to 3 to 5 minutes. The
> real big numbers started to go in the chimney at 7:43, by that time I had
> counted 56 entering. When the big batch starts going in think the only way
> to get a count is by tens. Tonight had 150 go in between 7:43 and 7:46. A
> couple of minutes later what were the last 4 for me tonight. This gave me
a
> total of 210 tonight.
> The old theatre is next to the Enumclaw Police Station. Remember the
> first light keep going one block (short block) and turn left, park
anyplace
> on this block. There is a gazebo diagonally across (Southwst) from the
> Police Station with a bench on the side by the street. This is a good
place
> to sit and watch. There are two chimneys at the theatre and the Swift use
> the one nearest the front. You will note that the back chimney has a power
> pole with transformers on it. Suspect they don't use it because of that.
By
> the way I keep calling it the old theatre but you should note that it
still
> in use. Also note that the times may change as the sunset times change.
> There activity tonight was very typical as that I have seen the past few
> years.
>
> Fred
> ---------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kelly A. Bettinger
> Subject: Fwd: Second Annual Swift Night Out
>
> Hi - I've forwarded this from the Georgia Birder's On-line list - note
it's
> not just for chimney swifts, they'd like reports of Vaux's swift roosts
over
> the weekend of Sept 6-8 too. Last year only one western roost site was
> reported (Portland) - we can do better than that!
>
> Forwarded:
>
> The Chimney Swift nesting season has drawn to a close, and the roosting
> flocks have begun to congregate. This year we are going to try to raise
> awareness of Chimney Swifts and Vaux's Swifts by holding our second annual
> Swift Night Out.
>
> We propose that over the next couple of weeks you locate a Chimney Swift
or
> Vaux's Swift roost in your area. A roost is a location where swifts
gather
> at dusk to spend the night. Then on one night over the weekend of
September
> 6,7,8, you observe the roost at dusk and estimate the number of swifts
that
> enter. When you have your number, contact us with your results. We will
> set up a page on our web site to compile the results as they come in.
You
> may send in your results by email, fax, phone or regular mail - we will
> continue to update the results through
> the end of September. Here are the contact numbers:
>
> Email: dwa at concentric.net
> Fax or phone: (512) 266-3861
> U.S. Mail: Driftwood Wildlife Association
> 1206 West 38th, Suite 1105
> Austin, Texas 78705
>
> Along with the number of swifts counted, please include your city and
state
> or province and the date that you observed the roost. If you
> provide the exact location of the roost that you monitor, we will also
> include that information in the results.
>
> If you are a member of a local bird club, outdoor group, Audubon chapter
or
> any other organization that might be interested in participating,
> please ask them to pass this information along to their membership.
>
> If you would like to see last year's results, click on the following link:
>
> <http://www.concentric.net/~Dwa/page68.html>
>
> Thank you for your support of Chimney Swift conservation. We look forward
> to hearing from you!
>
> Best Regards,
> Paul and Georgean
> --
> Paul D. and Georgean Z. Kyle
> North American Chimney Swift Nest Site Research Project
> Driftwood Wildlife Association
> 1206 West 38th Street, Suite 1105
> Austin, TX 78705
> (512) 266-3861
> Visit our web site at < http://www.concentric.net/~Dwa>
>
> Emily Jo Williams
> Partners in Flight
> Georgia Wildlife Resources Division
> 116 Rum Creek Drive, Forsyth GA 31029
> ej_williams at mail.dnr.state.ga.us
> ph 478-994-1438 fax 478-993-3050

> Kelly Bettinger
> Avian Monitoring and Research
> Northwest Habitat Institute
> P.O. Box 855
> 355 NW 7th Street
> Corvallis, OR 97339
> 1-541-753-2199 (phone)
> 1-541-753-2440 (fax)
> phoebe at peak.org
> Homepage: http://www.nwhi.org (check us out!)
>
>
>
>
>