I've been meaning to go check out the Vaux's Swifts roosting at Chapman Elementary School for years now and finally got over there Saturday night to see it for myself. According to the school's website, "The world's largest population of Vaux's Swifts makes its home in the Chapman chimney every year in late August and early September."
This is the chimney that they all fly into at dusk. It's no longer actually functioning as a chimney - the school was converted to gas using a different chimney - they left this one up for the birds to use.
The crowd early on. By the time the birds turned in for the night, the entire hillside and much of the soccer field were full of swift watchers of all ages and kids sliding down the hill on cardboard. The air was full of (no, not bird shit - though I imagine there must have been some) the aroma of pepperoni pizza which seemed to be a popular picnic item.
Lots of folks there with tripods and very professional looking cameras with very big lenses. Shooting from the top of the hill with my trusty Nikon Coolpix 4600 all I got were blurry snow globe images. There seemed to be fewer birds than I'd expected and they rather took their time heading in that night. There wasn't a sudden swoop of all the birds at once down the chimney. They sort of did it in stages. There was a moment of drama when one of the peregrine falcons swooped in - I think he/she might have gotten a swift. The falcon didn't make a second pass, but headed off towards the river.
There is a documentary film, On The Wing, coming out soon. It might be too late already to get tix for the premiere, but I'll have to go see it. Here's the trailer
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