Swifts

On Sunday night we went with some friends to a show like none other. It was the annual, month-long, evening ritual of a flock of little birds called Swifts. Only the flock is not so little! I think they estimated last year that there were 32,000 birds all flying together! During the month of September the birds all come to this one elementary school and circle around for an hour or two before diving in to the school's huge chimney for the night. It looks like a whirlwind or tornado. So cool!

The birds begin to arrive around 6 pm and hang out in the sky eating bugs and checking out the growing crowd below (or they could care less about us...) all the while swirling around the chimney before diving in.

While they did that, our kids were sledding down the grassy hill (just next to the chimney) on large pieces of cardboard. They had a blast!

Me, Locke, (Cliff was hiking Mt. Whitney), Jenn, Brett, Ashley, Tony, Kara and Jason

We brought a picnic lunch to enjoy with about 300 other people all on the grassy hill next to the school. Audubon society people passed out fliers for an upcoming bird festival, someone set up a table that had dead swifts and nests with eggs for us to examine, and the crowd cheered when the birds would swoop in a huge black cloud over us. It was pretty fun!

Most nights a hawk is expected to come and capture a swift for dinner. Last year he had a hard time... waiting for the right timing, even sitting on the chimney for a while. But this night, he flew right in and got one right away and flew off. Didn't make for much of a show, but it was fun to see the crowd (and Mason) get excited!

At 8 pm the last of the swifts dove in and went to sleep... What a fun-filled day with friends and birds!