Buyoed by great participation and successes in 2003 in locating waterfalls
where Black Swifts are likely nesting, I am again coordinating a regional effort
to continue this project in the summer of 2004. So please consider
participating again, or join the 103 people who participated last year. All it takes
is your time for a couple of warm summer evenings during July and August at
some of most beautiful places in the Pacific Northwest. How can you resist!

If you are interested please visit the web page
http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/BLSW/BLSW.html and click on Waterfalls to read about the protocol etc.
and peruse a list of sites that I am suggesting to visit. You can also read a
summary of last years efforts under Reports. A special thanks to Mike
Patterson for his time to develop and maintain the web page.

Speaking of web pages....I am working with Wolftree Inc. to develop a
companion web page that will have a clickable map that shows you where the falls are
located and takes you to a database with all the information on the surveys
that have been conducted there. Funding from the USFWS Neotropical Migratory
Bird Conservation Act and the Oregon Field Ornithologists is helping develop
this web page. I will let you know when it will be "open for business."

The geographic emphasis of the Black Swift waterfall inventories is from the
Cascade Mountains west, but I am open to receiving data from waterfalls east
of this area if you know of some places to survey. I would like to encourage
people to visit some sites not visited last year (although we need to go back
to some of the same places also), so if interested in visiting a site not
surveyed last year, let me know and I will see if I can direct you to a place near
you. Once you have selected a site(s) from the web page, please inform me via
email or phone (see info at bottom of this note) so that I can keep track to
avoid redundancy among sites.

A few comments based on our results from last year:
1. The birds are most often coming into the falls right at dusk, so staying
as late as possible is best....however, safety and your comfort-level of
walking out in the dark are the highest priority.
2. Getting near the base of the falls and looking up into the sky is usually
the best vantage point for seeing the birds at the falls.....but again safety
is numero uno and in many cases this is impossible, so just get the best
location you can.
3. If you have the luxury within your agency or organization to have some
night vision goggles available, try them. They can be a great aid in seeing
birds at the falls at dusk.
4. On the data sheets....please make sure to note beginning and ending time
and all observors so we can track volunteer hours. Additionally, please note
the times of all Black Swift sightings and where the sighting was relative to
the falls (e.g., in sky above falls, at falls, along river corridor below
falls, etc.).

Please forward this message on within your email networks as appropriate.
Black Swift inventories at waterfalls are being done throughout western North
America this summer, so in time and with your assistance, we may be moving this
species from one of the least-known to one that is relatively well-monitored.
Thanks in advance for all your help.

Bob Altman
American Bird Conservancy
Northern Pacific Rainforest BCR Coordinator
311 NE Mistletoe
Corvallis, OR 97330
phone/fax - 541 745-5339
baltman at abcbirds.org
alt8bird at aol.com
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