My son and I drove down to Portland today to see the swifts at Chapman School. We were not disappointed! The setting is beautiful, with a park next to the school, a nice hillside to sit on, and Mt St Helens in the distance. There were over a thousand people there, all well behaved, many with children, and many having a picnic. A couple Audubon people had a small exhibit of swifts, bats, swallows, and swift nests. We arrived about an hour before the big show, and a Cooper's Hawk was already waiting on top of the chimney. Several thousand swifts flew into the chimney--I wonder how they all fit? There were a few cheers as we watched two swifts fall victim to the Hawk (Hawks?), but the largests cheers were reserved for the beautiful tornado formations toward the end of the performance. A true avian spectacle!

Dan Logen
Stanwood
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