Hi Tweeters,

Members of Yakima Audubon have been searching for Vaux's Swifts roosts in
the Yakima area. Fred and Pat Erickson own the Sawyer Mansion along the
Yakima Valley Highway southeast of Yakima. They have had swifts roosting in
one of their chimneys during spring and fall migration for many years. The
Sawyer Mansion was built before 1900 and may have hosted swifts for many,
many years. Members of Yakima Audubon stopped by their place several years
ago to watch the swifts drop into their chimney. My recollection of the
total we saw that evening was about 125.

Richard Repp discovered another swift roost in Yakima in a chimney at the
Yakima Herald-Republic building on N. 4th St. Summaries of the counts at
the Herald-Republic chimney can be seen on the BirdYak website:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/birdyak/

According to a reporter at the newspaper, this chimney has not been used for
over thirty years.

I joined the group Sunday night when the total number of swifts was around
450, depending on whose count you wanted to believe.

Tonight, Greg and Elizabeth Bohn counted 1093 for the evening at the
Herald-Republic chimney! I got there at 8:25, after stopping at other
places in the Yakima area with large chimneys and finding no swifts, and saw
one more drop into the chimney. While there are many chimneys along the
West Coast with much higher totals, this evening's count is a big surprise
for us.

Denny Granstrand


* * * * * * * * * * * *
Denny Granstrand
Yakima, WA
dgranstrand AT gmail.com
Denny Granstrand's bird photos can be seen at:

www.granstrand.net/gallery/
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