Part two,

If you are not up on the history of Old Northern State Hospital you
may find it both fascinating and poignant. There were people who were
in treatment there for nearly their entire lives. Here's an excellent
historical website. http://www.skagitriverjournal.com/NearbyS-W/NSH/NSH1-Intro.html

Not surprisingly, the ghost buster crowd considers the site to be big
time haunted. There are lots of websites on that.

Since the hospital closed down in the early 70s several state
endeavors have been run from the grounds, perhaps the most significant
being Cascade Job Corps. Its a high security area and those of us who
want to look for spooks are not welcome. Those of us who want to look
for swifts are more so, but it does take some time and energy and
there's another way. They let Audubon Vaux's Happening in to check
things out. The smoke stack is huge and has at the bottom a 4x12 foot
pile of swift guano.

It seems the roost site was little used in recent migrations, until we
got Susan Madsen to plug up the open access hole at the bottom.
Immediately the swifts returned to the old stack by the thousands.

All of our observations lately have been from the Natural Resource
Area to the east. Thats a special place too.

Somebody needs to keep an eye on the Monroe Wagner swifts. I've got
to go get cat litter and salad fixings.

Larry Schwitters-Issaquah
for Audubon's Vaux's Happening

On Aug 5, 2011, at 1:50 PM, Larry Schwitters wrote:

> Tweeters,
>
> Audubon's Vaux's Happening project has been working at raising
> awareness of Vaux's Swift largely through their use of chimneys as
> large number roosting sites. One objective has been to identify as
> many as possible of the significant roost sites along their
> migratory path. We have done pretty good here, and you may be
> interested in this map we have put together of the major roost
> sites. http://www.vauxhappening.org/Vauxs_Happening/Most_Active_Roost_Sites.html
>
> You will note there seems to be three gaps on the map. The one
> between Portland Chapman and Selleck we have located at Ft Lewis,
> actually JBLM. The project coordinator just needs to get that one
> up on the map. We believe that the swift's accommodations near the
> OR-CA border are trees, and have located at least one big redwood
> snag that will hold a couple thousand birds. The major roost site
> in south central CA has eluded us so far, but I'm betting its there.
>
> Once we've documented a site we try to make a big deal about it so
> its less likely to get torn down because there seems no reason not
> to. We have gotten seriously involved with the Monroe Wagner site
> and its looking like that one is pretty much saved.
>
> There is another major historic Washington State roost site that
> could be in trouble, and its a beauty. That's Old Norther State
> Hospital near Sedro-Woolley,
> photo here http://www.vauxhappening.org/Vauxs_Happening/Old_Northern_State.html
> The property is currently up for sale.
>
> At Wagner and Selleck we have documented the swift/chimney roost
> site interaction big time, like nearly every day of both migrations
> for the last seven migrations. For example, http://www.vauxhappening.org/Vauxs_Happening/WA_South_10.html
> We have enough overwhelming data for Selleck to have it nominated
> as an IMPORTANT BIRD AREA. National Audubon is working on that
> right now.
>
> We don't have that data for Old Northern State.
>
> To be continued.
>
> Larry Schwitters-Issaquah
> for Audubon Vaux's Happening
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