I had an apparent Chimney Swift over the lower reservoir at Mt. Tabor Park
in Portland this evening. I first keyed into the bird because of its
distinctly lower-pitched, more staccato calls than the Vaux's Swifts that
were in the area at the same time.
At the time I was on the lookout for hawks and watching a minor northbound
flight of Yellow-rumped Warblers, not paying any attention to the swifts,
when the loud calls of a low flying swift immediately got my attention as
it sounded like a Chimney. I looked up and got a good view of the bird
through binoculars and noted that structurally the bird matched Chimney,
most notably that it appeared larger than the Vaux's Swifts immediately
nearby. The wing structure seemed to match Chimney, as viewed from
underneath while the bird was in a neutral glide. The bird seemed to glide
more and flap/flutter less than typical of Vaux's, although these visual
clues are hard to judge. Fortunately the bird called several more times,
confirming my initial reaction of distinctly lower-pitched, louder,
harder/more staccato calls, distinctly different than the Vaux's Swifts
which were calling at the same time and matching the calls of Chimney
Swift, as was my initial reaction. I did try for a recording but was unable
to get anything. I quickly alerted other local birders about the bird at
the time. Eventually I left to go owling elsewhere in the park.
It seems on the early side for a vagrant Chimney Swift, and I have always
thought that all but the most carefully observed swifts are not
identifiable in the field (with some reports of vagrant Chimneys being
perhaps the result of overly wishful thinking), but this observation was as
good a sighting possible for a swift, notably the well-heard calls, and it
was spot on for a Chimney.
Good birding,
Chris Hinkle
