8/28/08

Rare swifts to make Snohomish County visit

By Bob Sindelar

Pilchuck Audubon Society

“We thought they were bats,” said one of the young teen skateboarders, staring up at the flock of small black birds swirling around in the air above Wagner Elementary School in Monroe.

As they darted back and forth in the dimming light, they did, indeed, look a bit like bats, or maybe like swallows. But what we were watching was one of nature’s strangest sights--hundreds of Vaux’s Swifts, about to become thousands, preparing to swirl down for the night into an old brick chimney. It’s a sight to be seen only twice a year, during spring and fall migrations.
 
Monroe Swift Watch

The perfect opportunity to see the rare birds is coming up at the Monroe Swift Watch, September 6-21. The special event kicks off with Swift Night Out on Saturday, Sept. 6. The Pilchuck Audubon Society will present a special swift lecture, information booths, fun stuff for kids, snacks and drinks, and docents to answer questions, all topped off by the stunning aerial performance of hundreds, if not thousands, of swifts.

 The Vaux’s, named after an Englishman and pronounced “Vawks” rather than “Voh,” is the smallest of the four swift species in North America. Just 4 inches long and with a short bill and squared-off tail, it looks rather like a flying cigar.
 
The swifts spend almost all of the daylight hours in the air foraging, with their wide-open bills acting like traps as they fly through swarms of insects, consuming as many as 20,000 a day to satisfy their voracious appetite. When not feeding, their few remaining airborne hours are spent collecting nesting materials, courting and even copulating, all in flight.

But as the sun begins to settle, their thoughts turn to bedding down. Their favorite roosting areas are in large old hollow trees. But with the ever diminishing forests and the encroachment of human populations, they have been forced to find other nesting areas. Old stone or brick chimneys turn out to be just about perfect.

Swifts are not perching birds. Their small, curved claw structure is designed to cling to vertical surfaces rather than to perch on branches, and the interior walls of old chimneys provide the ideal clinging surface.
 
A young Vaux’s Swift clinging to a wall of carpet.
Photo courtesy of PAWS Wildlife Center.
 
As the light begins to fade, more and more swifts appear, and they swirl in tighter and tighter circles, grabbing that last mouthful of insects until, as if in response to a common signal, they begin dropping, tail first and scores at a time, into the chimney.
 Inside the chimney they will cling to the walls, overlapping like shingles on a roof, huddling together and lowering their collective metabolism to conserve heat.

We are fortunate to be watching the start of the fall migration of Vaux’s Swifts from southeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada. There are 29 known migration roosting sites in Washington, and the chimney at Monroe’s Wagner Elementary School is the largest in the state by far, and the second largest in North America; over 20,000 swifts were counted one night during the spring migration. The fall migration is always larger, the swifts having spent most of the summer raising three to seven young. If they all survive, two swifts in the spring will have become five to nine swifts by the fall.

 As flocks of the birds arrive, they will typically spend only a few weeks roosting here before moving on to their winter homes in Central America and Venezuela. But from mid-July to early October the “Monroe Swifts” provide a sight matched in few other places in the world.
 
 

Monroe Swift Watch

Swift Night Out is Saturday, September 6, at Frank Wagner Elementary School, 638 W. Main St., Monroe. Lecture at 6:30 p.m. Activities follow. Docents available 6-8 p.m.

Monroe Swift Watch continues evenings from 6-8 p.m. through September 21, with docents available to answer questions.

From the north: Take I-5  south to exit 194, east toward US 2, Wenatchee. In Monroe, turn right on N. Kelsey St., right on W. Main St.

From the southwest: Take I-5 north to exit 194, east toward US 2, Wenatchee. In Monroe, turn right on N. Kelsey St., right on W. Main St.

From the southeast: Take I-405 north to exit 23 A, toward WA 522/Monroe for 11.8 mi.; turn right toward W. Main St., Monroe; at roundabout, take second exit on to 164 St. SE (W. Main St.)

Monroe Swift Watch is co-sponsored by Pilchuck Audubon Society, Seattle Audubon Society, Eastside Audubon Society, Monroe School District #103, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, PAWS Wildlife Center, Wild Birds Unlimited-Monroe, and many community members.

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