Part Three

To the east of the Northern State Hospital Smoke Stack is a 726 acre
county park, Northern State Recreation Area, that's pretty hot stuff.
The remains of the facilities working farm can be found here. The
farm produced enough food to feed all of Northern State and then some,
and was designed to provide the patients a calming and rewarding place
to work that offered great views. It's also a pleasant birding
destination on its own, even without the swifts.

It has barns and can you believe Barn Owls. I've seen them the
majority of my trips there.

It has two large parking lots, one with a potty but no water, and its
free-free-free.

Makes you want to go count swifts there doesn't it.

But wait........there's more, an 18 hole disk (frisbee) golf course,
which is also free. http://www.dgcoursereview.com/course.php?id=2427

Think about it guys, what a super cheap date this would be. A round
of disk golf followed by a sunset picnic at the table with the smoke
stack view, watching all them little birds do their thing. Then that
almost dark walk past the barns and owls and cemetery. Man she would
be holding on so tight to you.

If you're interested in being involved in the 2011 southbound
migration census of Vaux's Swifts at Old Northern State send me an
email. Figure the last week of August to pushing the end of September.

Oh, and did I mention money? WDFW thinks enough of this endeavor to
provide some funding for milage.

Have you got what it takes for Old Northern State? That's leschwitters at me.com
or lpatters at ix.netcom.com

Larry Schwitters, Issaquah
for Audubon Vaux's Happening