Just read Kevin Li's on my Tweeters Digest and thought I'd mention that
not all of our swifts went into the chimney on Friday evening. The
first Merlin pass came from trees SE of the school, probably using the
big tree just south of the chimney for cover. I did not observe a hit,
altho' it's possible as the falcon swirled through the swifts and flew
to trees NW of the school. After some time, a Merlin came from the NW
trees and flew fairly directly over the chimney to the SE trees. Oddly,
this SE trajectory was the very path the remaining couple dozen swifts
flew after all the rest had gone down the chimney. Also, Alan and I
arrived early enough to see a couple of swifts pop into the chimney
around 6:37 p.m. A few minutes later, a couple of swifts popped out of
the chimney. This behavior was repeated 2 or 3 times before enough of a
crowd arrived for some serious swirling to begin.

Further enlightenment on any of this is welcome.

Patricia S. Lott
Seattle, WA
mail to: VariedThrush at comcast.net