Vaux's Swifts

Last evening, I went to the corner of 13th and Monroe in Corvallis to watch the Vaux's swifts begin to assemble for the night. There were about 200 of them, but I didn't wait for them to roost. During the summer, we see these birds in much smaller groups - often in the evening, and often feeding higher in the sky than the swallows. But, as their fall migration begins, the groups get bigger and bigger. There are quite a few roosting locations in the Willamette Valley, and people actually hold little parties to watch the action.