Tweeters:Please join us Tuesday, April 8 at 7PM at the Monroe School District board room for the second public meeting to save the Monroe Vaux's swifts. Pilhuck, ELWAS, Seattle Audubon and the Department of Fish and Wildlife are working cooperatively with the Monroe School District and community to find a solution to thedemolitionof the chimney at Wagner Elementary School. This chimney is used each fall and spring as a roosting site for 3-4000 swifts...the largest known flock in Washington state and one of the largest in the world.

The Everett Herald recently ran a second article on our efforts to save this gentle bird that is described as the most "air-able" of birds, eating, mating and even having somesemblanceof sleep on the wing. Unable to find suitable hollow old-growth snags to roost, they have substituted old brick chimneys but these too are coming down. The birds' feet are incapable of landing on twigs and they must cling to the interior of a vertical surface for night-time roosting.
Please see the Everett Herald link below.

Mike Blackbird
President, Pilchuck Audubon
Paulette Hunter
Education Chair, Seattle Audubon
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080329/LIVING08/589706870#When.chimney.goes.where.will.Monroes.Vauxs.swifts.roost