The_Birds

So after noting that Sauvie Island concerts are one of my favorite things about summer in Portland, I have to follow that up with one of the special, if not overtly quirky, things that autumn brings each year for the past dozen or more years - the return of the Vaux's Swifts to Chapman Elementary School in NW Portland. For about a month and a half each autumn, up to 40k birds roost each night in the tall boiler chimney at Chapman School and on any clear evening (and some drizzly) several hundred Portlanders show up with kids, families, dogs, picnics, cameras, and plenty of cardboard to ride the grassy hillside as they anticipate the arrival of the swifts. Just after dusk the cloud of birds appear and nervously scope the chimney entrance for signs of lurking bird of prey. As the coast is deemed clear a spiraling funnel forms and the birds begin to descend into the chimney where they cling to the brick walls during the night. At times a hawk or falcon will swoop in and try to make a grab - to which the swifts respond by mounting an attack of mass number chasing the predator away, which always gets an 'ohh-ing and ahh-ing' tennis match-esqe response from the crowd. We used to live right across the street from this spectacle for several years and it was truly a hightlight of autumn. If you don't believe a word of what I am saying click here.