On Sunday evening while walking along the dike at Wright Marsh in the Killbuck 
Marsh Wildlife Area (Wayne Co.), I flushed a flock of five whimbrels. While 
following their flight through my binoculars, a nighthawk appeared in my field 
of view. I lowered my binocs to scan for more of them. Suddenly, the sky was 
filled with a huge flock of swifts. Way, way up but directly overhead I watched 
them stream southward. I suppose way up there they were chittering away as 
swifts almost always do, but no sound reached my ears. A silent grand spectacle. 
I stood transfixed. Then just like that the sky was empty again. But those few 
moments–from the second the whimbrels took to the air to the second the last 
swift disappeared from view–were all it took to transform a pretty ordinary, 
uneventful walk into an experience I will not soon forget. 

I love the fall migration.
–Gabe Hostetler
Wooster 




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