Tweeters,

Sunday Leora and I went back to far NE Washington after Black Swifts.
The main event was an in the rain, Laurel and Hardy, inflatable life
raft assault on Pewee Falls from Boundary Dam. The score there was
Black Swifts 0-Field Researchers survived. The next day was spent
tracking down obscure tiny waterfalls in the Selkirks. Even though one
eye was always on the sky, not a swift did appear.

It was late afternoon when we coasted into Tonasket. We put away the
topo maps and pointed our rental SUV, the Blue Pig, southwest down Hwy.
97 towards Blewett Pass. Just north of Malott there were Black Swifts
everywhere. They were over the Okanogan River, the highway, and
working the field to the east. I counted 32. They would get right
down on the deck and see how close they could come to the passing big
rigs. I thought for sure the Burke Museum was going to get a new study
skin. Before we got to Lake Pateros there were two more flocks of 52
and 30. Though we loudly asked where they came from, they never made a
sound.

I surely love these birds.

Larry Schwitters
Issaquah