Tweeters,

Black Swifts and their nests have been almost impossible to find in Washington and Oregon. I spent years at it including waterfall repelling and couldn?t find one. But Oregon?s Eric Horvath can and has found these secretive birds and their nests, lots of them. He?s got great optics and patience and persistence that is off the charts. He will also rappel and scuba dive after them.

The first discovered nest in Washington State was and still is at Silver Falls up the Entiat Valley. It was discovered by two local women who?s names I?ve lost. This was during the Nature Conservancy?s 2003 adapt a waterfall Black Swift inventory project. Somehow a big deal wasn?t made of it and I didn?t catch it. Anyway there is at least one nest which can be really hard to see behind the falling water. You want to go when the water level is low. We know it was active in August of 2012 and August of 2013.

If that's too long a drive for you Eric found a nest with an adult on it at Keekwulee Falls near Snoqualmie Pass. Charles Bergman and I went up there last week and got a photograph of the nest but the chick was probably too small to be seen.

I believe only seven humans have seen a Black Swift nest in Washington.

Larry Schwitters
Issaquah