[News]Sonoma County birders: Come see the Vaux’s Swifts in Sebastopol

[Dr@g0n]

Linda Irving wasn’t expecting to see what she saw at Park Side Elementary Tuesday night. The principal for the Sebastopol elementary school and superintendent for the city’s small public school district reported she went to check on the school after Tuesday’s earthquake -- centered in Santa Rosa’s Larkfield neighborhood -- had caused the town of Sebastopol to shake, rattle and roll. “All was fine,” Irving said. But, she was surprised to see a large group of folks with binoculars and scopes.

They were birders who had noticed a particular group of birds circling high above the building, Irving said. Then, much to Irving’s surprise, the birds took a dive into the school, down through chimney.Welcome to migration season for the Vaux’s Swift. Vaux’s Swifts, also commonly called Chimney Swifts in the east, are small birds with tube or cigar-shaped bodies that’s typically painted different shades of brown, with the chest and rump appearing paler than the rest of the body. They boast long, arched wings and short tails. Each year, these birds travel from Alaska and Oregon south to Mexico, following the western coastline of the United States. Very little is known about final roosting of migrant Vaux’s Swifts, but the locally nesting po[CENSORED]tions in the Yucatán Peninsula sometimes roost and nest in natural limestone wells. A tell-tale sign of the Vaux’s Swift is that it roosts in groups -- often very large groups, like the flock at Park Side -- in hollowed-out places, like trees, chimneys or other vertical openings, especially during migration. At dusk, these flocks become swirling masses that collect and swarm as the birds prepare to go in for the night. That collective mass is what Irving got to witness Tuesday night with her “new birding friends,” as she calls them. Irving noted the birds are not nesting in the school, which she already noted to parents during the school’s back-to-school night. “They are sleeping, on their way migrating south,” Irving said. “They can't stand up, are only able to grasp onto the side of the chimney wall, and have probably been doing this at Park Side for decades.”

Irving doesn’t want to be the only one to witness the phenomenon. She’s invited the public out for a viewing today (Friday, Sept. 16). Arrive at 7 p.m. and bring a comfy low-back chair or blanket and some tasty nibbles while you wait for the action! Parking at the elementary school is limited to neighborhood street parking; parking on campus is extremely limited with less than 20 spots available. Please be courteous to neighbors.1. They’re the smallest swift in North America. 2. Vaux's Swift is named for William S. Vaux, a member of the Academy of Natural Sciences and a friend of John K. Townsend, who first described the species. The name looks like it might be pronounced voh but Vaux himself pronounced it vawks. 3. To feed their young, adult Vaux’s Swifts may make 50 trips to the nest each day, beginning at dawn and ending at dusk. Each parent feeds the nestlings a ball of about 115 insects per visit. That means a single pair of swifts may remove about 11,500 insects per day from the air!

link:https://www.sonomacountygazette.com/sonoma-county-news/sonoma-county-birders-come-see-the-vaux-swifts-in-sebastopol/

Edited September 17, 2022 by Dr@g0n