By Susan Saul
The southward migrating Vaux’s swifts have abandoned Chapman School in Portland, but that does not mean you are without viewing opportunities.
Down the Columbia River from Vancouver, the chimney at the Riverside Community Church in Rainier, Oregon, has hosted up to 25,000 Vaux’s swifts during migrations since the chimney was uncapped and opened in 2019. It has become one of the largest Vaux’s swift roost sites in the Pacific Northwest.
Your best viewing is from one-half hour before sunset until one half-hour after sunset. You can watch the swifts from the lower parking lot accessible from the corner of West D Street and West 3rd Street on the north side of Riverside Community Church. Willapa Hills Audubon Society has volunteers stationed at the street corner to count the birds and provide information.
On Saturday, September 21, Willapa Hills Audubon will have its annual no-host Vaux’s Swifts Viewing Supper at El Tapatio Mexican Restaurant in Rainier at 6 p.m. Afterwards, there will be a viewing party at the church.
Vancouver Audubon 