The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: Baruch Menachem on September 05, 2008, 11:55:24 PM
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When Chapman school was built in the 1920's it was heated by a sawdust burning furnace with a huge smokestack. During the summer, migratory swifts began roosting it the smokestack, and people got in the habit of watching them roost. The furnace has since been converted to natural gas, a conversion paid for by the audobaun society, which also paid for the sismic refit of the chimney.
Anyway, for about 3 weeks in the spring, and three weeks in the fall people watch the migrating swifts roost at sunset. It is a weird and wonderful thing. they make a dark cloud over the school and they fly back and forth, and when they finally go to bed around sunset the pour into the smokestack like a reverse cloud of smoke.
Anyway, my kids and I went to watch this evening. It was really lots of low key fun.
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Swift FAQSwift news (http://www.audubonportland.org/local-birding/swiftwatch/swift-watch)
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That is interesting. I feel sorry for the chimneysweeps of old. It was a shitty job.
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Cool...looks like something I would do with my kids!
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Well, it is an Oregon thing. Even the migratory fowl are kind of strange. Must be something in the water.
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"If you like watching birds fly into a smokestack............."