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Mary Garrard

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Apr 29, 2023, 12:40:14 AM4/29/23

to Mid-Valley Nature, OBOL, Larry Schwitters, Beverly Clark, Susan Brown

……the 2023 Vaux’s Swift northward migration! After a couple of nights of visiting a half-dozen or so of the frequently-used chimneys without any results, tonight I counted 200 swifts enter the Whiteside Theater chimney well past sunset on a lovely warm evening.

This annual phenomenon is a lot of fun to watch, and of course in order for there to be a fall southward migration, when there are lots of swift watchers, there has to be a spring northward one! There are fewer numbers of swifts migrating in the spring because of losses in winter, and the fall migration numbers include the young of the year.

The Whiteside chimney is often the one that the swifts choose as their roost, but there are others used as well, and sometimes the birds will seemingly randomly, to me, abandon one and start using another. Don’t know why, and it can be frustrating if you show up at one roost only to be skunked. Sometimes a predator will appear and cause them to veer off to another chimney.

Happy spring migration to all! So wonderful to finally have some warm weather, and the longer days are a true joy.