A week after watching Vaux’s Swits go down the chimney at the winery, Karen Hussey invited me to accompany her to Hedrick Middle School in Medford where thousands of swifts have roosted in a big brick chimney for many years. Karen is in charge of ‘the Swift Project’ and has done a remarkable job in alerting the community to the roosts, engaging kids and teachers at the school, and alerting the public to the hazards the birds face here during migration. Here she is, waiting for the great descent.
And here is the school chimney.
The sunset was glorious, and had a fiery yellow ball none of us has ever seen before. The sun was setting on the far right and the configuration of the sky was puzzling – and wonderful.
I was watching with Carol Mockridge, current president of Rogue Valley Audubon, which sponsers the school program on swifts.
At dusk the birds began to form columns that then descended into the chimney. Sorry about the blurry photo, my iPad is great but this was a challenge it could not meet.
Karen counts with a click on her clicker for every 10 birds that enter the chimney. That evening she counted what she considered at least 1900 birds entering the roost. It is hard to imagine what it looks like inside the chimney. And remarkable to see such an event in the heart of a city.