In checking back over eBird records it showed that most of the Swifts were
gone by the end of September with just single or double sightings
occurring. Here we are on the last weekend of September and last night at
Sunset there were 2400 Swifts going into the Okauchee chimney. I figured
after waking up that morning with ice on the windshield that the insect
availability was down and I was going to be surprised to see even 100 or
some very lesser number. That got completely reversed by this intense
Gathering last night. I'm on my way to watch the Packer game and I stopped
at Okauchee now and there were five to seven hundred Swifts flying over the
chimney and school; the interesting part was that birds were flying in and
then birds were flying out I couldn't keep track which way the numbers were
going except that there was this large cloud of at least 500 plus Birds
circling while many of them were flying farther away, and still many diving
back in. At this moment there are no birds in the area and it has turned
into a lull.
I'm wondering what the prognosis is for the birds to migrate and if they
are proceeding south or they are still gathering here at Okauchee. I'm also
wondering if the other roosts are experiencing the same phenomenon with
large numbers at this time or birds still roosting during the evenings.
I'll be back at Sunset to see what goes on tonight. It doesn't seem there
can be that many insects up in the air, but then again I can't see all the
aero-Plankton that's up there. Please let me know what you see if there are
Swifts still in your area. Thank you.
Spence Stehno, Waukesha
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