At sunset, we headed over to Chapman School to watch the Vaux's Swifts, a flock of up to 15,000 tiny birds that migrates south every fall. During migration, every night at sunset the flock finds a place to roost (sleep) overnight. The swifts have been coming to the chimney of this school every night in September since the late 80's. It has turned into a huge event, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of people gathering on the school lawn every night to watch the giant cloud of birds swirl into the chimney.
Chapman SchoolI knew it was a popular event, but I was still surprised to see the turnout. Parents, children, neighbors, and out-of-towners turned out in droves. Throughout the event, children were sliding down this big hill on cardboard toboggans and excitedly running straight back up, which was sort of cute.
Bombs away
Since the new camera does not have a video recording mode, I did my best with photos in the low light. The swifts are tiny, so I strongly encourage you to click on the photos below which will open them up at full size, so you can actually see what's happening!
Just getting started, the swifts are scattered and flying all around
As if on cue, they start swirling and slowly funneling into the chimney
The swifts just kept coming. The sky was darkened by this huge swarm of little flapping birds, it was crazy. If you enlarge the picture below, you can see how the vortex of birds reaches way far up into the sky.
We also apparently witnessed a somewhat uncommon event when a few falcons (I'm not sure exactly which variety) came around, and starting dive-bombing into the thick of the flock. One of the reasons the swifts choose this location again and again is for the lack of predators. Not tonight though. We saw a couple of them reach out and snatch a swift in their talons and fly away... brutal, but pretty cool too. Nature.
There were about twice this many people behind us on the hill tooThere is a good video of the event on youtube here. It's only a couple minutes long, I recommend checking it out. The truth is, it's hard to capture this event on any sort of camera as it literally fills the sky above you. But you get the idea. I'm glad we got to catch it this year!
Earlier in the day, Buckley got to go for a walk in Forest Park with his new buddy Pinot, a Vizsla puppy that Eric and Kelly just got a few weeks ago. She is SO cute... so these pictures are just for cuteness sake. :)
Meet Pinot
She really had it out for Buckley
Play play play
Rar!
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