Roseburg Swift Watch Holds First Gathering, Second Viewing Planned Friday
The first of two Roseburg Fall Swift Watch gatherings was held Friday evening near the Clay Place chimney in Stewart Park. A second free viewing is planned for Sept. 25 as volunteers continue tracking migrating Vaux’s Swifts.
ROSEBURG, Ore. - The first of two Roseburg Fall Swift Watch gatherings was held Friday evening near the Clay Place chimney in Stewart Park, bringing community members together during the annual migration of Vaux’s Swifts through the Umpqua Valley.
The event was organized by the Umpqua Bird Alliance in partnership with Roseburg Parks and Recreation. Visitors gathered in the Fir Grove section of the park as daylight faded to watch the sky near the chimney, a longtime roosting location for migrating swifts.
A second gathering is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25, off Harvard Avenue behind the Umpqua Valley Arts Center.
Local musicians also performed during the gathering, providing live music as attendees watched the sky near the Clay Place chimney.
Vaux’s Swifts are small, dark birds known for their rapid flight and long, curved wings. The birds spend much of their lives in the air and cannot perch on horizontal surfaces like most other birds. Instead, they cling vertically to surfaces inside hollow trees and chimneys when resting.
During their fall migration, the birds gather at communal roosts before continuing south toward wintering areas in Mexico and Central America. Older masonry chimneys have become important substitutes for the large, hollow trees that traditionally provided places for the birds to rest.
The Clay Place chimney is among the locations monitored through Vaux’s Happening, a community-science project that tracks swift migration along the Pacific Flyway. Volunteers submit observations and counts that help document population trends and identify important roosting sites.
According to Vaux’s Happening, the project has documented more than 140 roosts and recorded more than 31 million swift observations during 19 years of monitoring.
Umpqua Bird Alliance members participate in that broader data-collection effort during the Roseburg migration. The organization says the local migration generally peaks in mid- to late September, although the number of birds present can vary from night to night.
Weather permitting, the Swifts Sisters and Friends will perform Americana music during the Sept. 25 gathering. Alliance members will also provide information about Vaux’s Swifts, birdwatching and the region’s natural environment.
The event is free and open to the public. More information about the monitoring project is available at Vaux’s Happening.
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