Vaux’s swifts in Portland
A dog park buddy described going to a park on Portland’s westside and seeing an amazing number of small birds, Swifts, that make a chimney a home on their way to Central America.
Near upper Northwest Pettygrove Street, this nightly experience has been happening for a couple of weeks every September since the early 1990s. That is when anywhere from many hundreds to more than 30,000 of these Vaux’s swifts — this “Vaux” rhymes with “Box” — started using Chapman’s chimney as a September hotel before flying on to Central America.
Bev, Ralph the dog and I drove to the area last evening and discovered a whole new world. On the hillside behind the chimney were hundreds of people sitting on their blankets, pulling out their picnic dinners waiting for the swifts to appear. About 6:30 PM, we started to see small birds swirling in the air. As we got closer to 7:00 the numbers of birds grew to many thousands, dipping and diving around the chimney opening.
The literature says they eat and drink and copulate in flight, migrate twice a year, whirl by the thousands down big chimneys for the night, sleep vertically wing-to-wing with feet that grip the bricks like Velcro. Hawks snag and carry them off to eat.
The sun dropped behind the west hills and a hawk flew through the swirl.
Then as if on command, the birds started flying down inside the chimney forming a large tornado all the birds moving counter clockwise. By 7:20 the air was mostly quiet as we picked up our belongings and headed home.
Quite a relaxing way to spend a small part of an evening with my wife and dog.
Update:
[…] even when far apart. In Portland we see the phenomenon at Chapman school each year as the Vaux’s swifts entertain with their swooping and turning and then disappear for the night down the tall […]