Vaux's Swift chimney action

[Mary Garrard]

Hi, the southward swift migration is building and if you want to catch this awesome phenomenon, the action is at the Whiteside Theater chimney so far this year. Monday had 560, Tuesday had 640, and tonight I counted 1610 enter the chimney well past sunset. If you stand on 4th street, in front of the Corvallis Environmental Center between Monroe and Madison and look east, you’ll see the chimney. The swifts gather and swirl for quite a while before dropping into the chimney in a vortex of wings and bodies. It’s so much fun to watch, and a great way to spend a balmy Corvallis evening. Sometimes the LaBamba nightclub provides additional entertainment while you wait….

If you aren’t familiar with Vaux’s Swifts, there’s a great website managed by Larry Schwitters (yes, that’s really his name) called VauxHappening. He has been collecting data on the Vaux’s Swift migration for years and has a lot of good information on the website. 

A note of caution: sometimes the little birds abruptly abandon one chimney for another in mid-migration, for no discernible reason, so if you happen to go to watch at the Whiteside and they don’t show up, they will be elsewhere in town. Unfortunately, they don’t make an announcement when they do this, so it’s always a surprise. So far this year they have been entering the chimney 10-15 minutes past sunset. The predicted heat and wind for Friday and Saturday this weekend may affect the timing. I suspect that if the brick chimney is too hot from the accumulation of heat during the day that they can’t use it until it cools off, or they go elsewhere, such as into the shelter of trees.

Happy fall migration!

Mary

[Joel Geier]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for this news, and kudos to you for keeping tabs on migrant swifts!

I wanted to ask, is anyone watching chimneys in Albany? And especially, is anyone watching the "swift tower" in Albany? I saw a few swifts flying near it during spring migration, but it's a little out of the way for me to monitor regularly, since it's 10 miles away.

If anyone in Albany is following this list and might be able to spend an evening or two watching that tower, please let me know!

Thanks,

Joel

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From: "Mary Garrard" <spring...@gmail.com>
To: "Corvallis Birding" <corvalli...@googlegroups.com>, "Mid-Valley Nature" <mid-vall...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 8, 2022 8:40:29 PM
Subject: [MidValleyNature:6737] Vaux's Swift chimney action

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[Mary Beth Earley]

Hi everyone, the Vaux's swifts were AWESOME last night at the Whiteside! I seemed to be the only one there watching. I don't know the technique to count birds (sorry), but I'm thinking there were at least 2000 overall. One big wave went in, then a second smaller (but still, maybe 750 birds?) group went in, then finally at least 50 stragglers.

I posted this video of part of the first wave to Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/marybeth.earley/videos/489743562595590

Don't know what tonight will be like, with the smoke, heat, weird sky/weather, etc. But the sky was FILLED with birds last night! :)

Thank you all for posting your sightings all year, I always learn so much!

-- Mary Beth

Mary Beth Earley

mber...@gmail.com

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[Mary Garrard]

Thanks Mary Beth. I may try for tonight depending on the state of the smoky air. It triggers bad memories from the fall migration in 2020…..Hope that this doesn’t linger so long. 

if you (or anyone) wants to do official counts to report to the VauxHappening website, let me know. It’s easy but there are a couple of tricks I’ve learned that I can share.

May all, especially the migrating birds, be safe.

Mary