Swifts

This was our second time to see the swifts.


It seemed like the crowd and flock was much larger this time around.


The hillside quickly filled with people enjoying their dinner while watching their kids slide down the hill on cardboard boxes. I took more pics of this last year. This year, I just hung out on the blanket with Locke-Buddy


while the kiddos slid down the hill, looked for bugs, made houses out of cardboard boxes and played football in the field below with daddy.

I learned something new this year! When the bird man (Swift enthusiast who wears boingy bird cutouts on his head and carries around a dead swift in a box for anyone interested to see)


came around, I asked him where they go during the day. He said that each flock of birds come to this particular chimney only once. The next day when the sun comes up, they keep on flying south towards Mexico (I think). So interesting!

The hawk didn't show up again for us this year. But we loved the show the birds put on for us. The oohs and awes from the crowd were so fun to hear as the swifts would swing right over our heads on their trip around the chimney. They got a really good funnel going this time too! Towards the end it looked like the last 200 or so wouldn't be able to fit because they kept making a go of it and then pulling up at the last second. They eventually made it though!



As usual, we love to celebrate any event with our close friends. The kids have so much fun together and the adults genuinely enjoy each other too... What a BLESSING!