Via: Geauga County Park District
Enjoy a Swift Night Out
Senior Naturalist Dan Best is looking for area bird fans to contribute to a nationwide chimney swift census this weekend on your choice of Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening at dusk - a great way to contribute to conservation science!
First, identify a roosting site. How? About 8 p.m. the night before your chosen day, look for birds circling your local unused incinerator chimneys of older institutional buildings, schools, hospitals and churches. Also try uncapped chimneys of older houses and air shafts and smoke stacks of old factory buildings.
"There are many potential sites around the county that should be checked to see if local and migratory swifts are roosting in them," said Dan, suggesting the following prospective sites as candidates.

Berkshire High School (500+ swifts Tuesday night - click here for a video)
Chardon High School (225 swifts Wednesday night)
Munson Elementary (known site)
Church on NW corner of Chardon Square (known site)
Newbury High School
West Geauga High School
Burton Elementary
Hambden Elementary
Westwood Elementary
Kenston Early Learning Center on Route 306
Lindsey Elementary
Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin School
Notre Dame Elementary School
St. Helen's School in Newbury
Timmons Elememtary
Former elementary school buildings in Troy, Claridon, Huntsburg and Parkman

Next, on the day you choose to count, arrive at your roost site at sundown (7:30 p.m. or earlier if it's cloudy) and brace yourself for an hour of quick counting. You will note each swift as it drops into the chimney. Be careful, these birds "fake it" many times before actually entering, and with potentially hundreds looking for evening shelter, an accurate count can also be a challenge because of their numbers. Consider bringing a friend to help.
Finally, report the following to the Driftwood Wildlife Association at [log in to unmask] and Dan [log in to unmask]:

Number of swifts counted
Time and time zone (EST)
Complete address of roosting site (or as much of it as you can get) and name/description of building

Visit http://chimneyswifts.org for more information on the birds and the mission, and thanks in advance if you can help.
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