Subject: [Tweeters] Diving Swifts
Date: Sat Sep 5 13:04:05 PDT 2020
From: stan Kostka lynn Schmidt - lynnandstan at earthlink.net

Hi Tweets, I recently observed some swift behavior that I had never seen before,(away from a roost site).

We are around 500 feet on the north side of the North Fork Stillaguamish Valley, just over a mile from the river, east of Bryant. There is a very large alder snag at the edge of our orchard. I'm guessing the snag is about 75 feet high, maybe 80, with a 24 inch diameter at the base. It's been completely dead several years, and as a snag has stood much longer than Alder snags usually stand, it's in full sun all day, so now after several years it's bleached quite white, and very conspicuous on the landscape, in front of the conifers and green leafed deciduous trees in the woods behind it. We love this snag, it has perching birds almost every day. Sapsuckers fledged young from a cavity in it this year. A while ago we watched a Peregrine Falcon perched there at the very top, having a meal. That was quite a thrill.

So, recently on a low cloud morning, a group of about seven Vaux's were passing over, foraging, as they often do on low cloud days in the late summer. However this time, every so often one bird would leave the group,
dive down along the snag then returned to foraging, then another did the same kind of dive, and one time two swifts together dove straight down along the length of the snag and then pulled up and went back up and joined the group. They were diving really fast, almost going to the ground. They went lower than the tops of the apple trees, about 10 feet high. I suspect they were checking out the snag, for nesting or roosting. It was a really cool thing to watch.

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net <http://earthlink.net/>
Arlington
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