Bridgeport Brewery is celebrating their 25th anniversary with a block party on NW 13th outside the brewery, Saturday from 4 -10. There will be live music and maybe a couple of birds. Bonus for helping them celebrate is that $1 from every beer sold will go to Audubon Society of Portland.  Official press release with schedule.

Also on Saturday is Multnomah Days which starts with a pancake breakfast at 8am. Special activities in Multnomah Village including an arts and crafts sale at the Multnomah Arts Center from 9-3. Link here for more info. Note that this site doesn’t allow anyone who isn’t a registered user to see some information.

Sunday take a stroll down Hawthorne and enjoy the Hawthorne Street Fair from 11-5.  Music, children’s activities and local vendor events all along Hawthorne. More info at http://thinkhawthorne.com/happenings/#event_88    This year’s Street Fair coincides with the Southeast Sunday Parkway event which goes on from 9am-4pm and covers several neighborhoods including Hawthorne.

If you’d rather visit art in the woods, the Arts Festival in the Forest is on both Saturday and Sunday from 10-5 down in Mary S. Young Park in West Linn.  It’s fun to stroll through the trees and find artworks, musical performances or aerial dancers. More info at http://www.marysyoungartsfestival.com/

I did make the day more pleasant for an Anna’s hummingbird mother by putting out new food. She paid repeated visits to the balcony while I was working on the plants and didn’t seem at all concerned that I was there. After the chores were done as far as I intended to take them, I sat outside reading Jon Raymond’s collection of short stories called “Livability” and watching the elm seeds drift through the air like snowflakes.

As I was idly watching the seeds, as flash of color in the trees caught my eye. Hm, yellow but too big to be a goldfinch. Then I saw a flash of red and couldn’t believe my luck. Don’t get to see Western Tanagers in downtown very often. Usually I see them someplace like Mount Tabor where they’re up in the tip-top of an evergreen. Beautiful but not as satisfying as a somewhat closer view.  I grabbed the binoculars that more or less live on the dining table and confirmed that it was indeed a Western Tanager, inspecting the trees for insect snacks. There were at least two males and a couple of the less colorful but no less interesting females.

An excellent ending to the afternoon.

Western Tanager photo by Tom Talbott

Today’s story is the unexpected juxtaposition of several opportunities in Friday’s mail. The happy (expected) mail was payment for a small editing job I did a while back. The unwelcome (but not unexpected) piece was a formal rejection letter for a job I maybe sort-of wanted but not getting it doesn’t break my heart.  I had already heard by the grapevine a few weeks ago that someone else had been selected.

Then there was the curious request from a publication that I wrote an article for years ago — they’re doing something with online databases and wanted use permission. Kind of interesting because as a researcher I’m in favor of online databases — so why not let them have it. (I should say this is not a money transaction; the options are give permission for no fee or don’t have it published). On the good side, they didn’t do what some publications have done, which is post the content and then wait to see if anybody objects. And as far as the content, it’s only one piece and very likely if I were writing it today I’d just post it online myself anyway. Still it’s an interesting piece of mail.

The next piece was really advertising — but how in the world did I get on a list where Donald Trump is sending me tickets to some … event. I know these things are to sell their various books and services, but it’s entertaining that Mister “You’re fired” actually *wants* me. It says so, right on the piece of paper. The tickets look real — maybe I should see if includes “free” lunch.

Clearly health clubs are trying harder in the down economy. I’ve belonged to several over the years and every so often one pops up, trying to convince me to come back. Today’s is more entertaining though. They’re offering a full seven day complimentary membership. That does seem like a good deal — and really if I were going to rejoin one of them, they’d be my choice. They’re also offering several discounts on full-year memberships.

The last piece of mail is Birding, the magazine of the American Birding Association. They’re taunting me with an article about identifying flycatchers. I love flycatchers but they’re notoriously hard to differentiate even for world-class birders. Still it’s fun to have aspirations.

All in all, a pretty entertaining day and I’m looking forward to more trips to the mailbox.

 Dan Viens captures the experience of sitting outside Chapman on a fall evening, enjoying the acrobatics of the birds and the enthusiasm of the crowd.   He also shows close-ups of the little birds — hard to get since they’re almost always in motion — and has commentary from adults and children who come to watch as well as neighbors and staff and volunteers from the Audubon Society of Portland.

A trailer for the film is posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vojNdQf53bQ

Cinema 21 will be showing it again at 1PM today, Sunday October 5, and will have evening shows from October 10-16 at 7PM.  Further film info available at

If you don’t have tickets to that show, Cinema 21 has announced that it will be showing the film on Saturday and Sunday (October 4 and 5) at 1PM.   Further film info available at

About four inches long and very fast (there’s a reason they’re called “swifts”) Vaux’s is the smallest North American swift. Birders often refer to them as looking like “flying cigars” because of the short stubby body and long wings. In case you’re wondering, it’s pronounced “vox.” It looks French but was named for an American — William S. Vaux.

You don’t see very good pictures of swifts because they’re always in motion — I have dozens of attempts showing blurry black dots in the sky. In fact pretty much the only time they’re not in motion is when they’re inside a roost. That was originally something like a hollow tree, but they’ve adapted to man-made structures and chimneys are one of their favorites. In Portland, the chimney up at Chapman Elementary School is the place to go on September nights to watch them. The swifts come together in these communal roosts in the fall as they prepare for migration to Central America.

People gather by the school to have picnic dinners and watch the birds perform. There are thousands of them (birds, I mean — but often several hundred people as well). Audubon estimates at least 10,000 swifts or so in mid-September. Some years there have been 35,000. The funnel resembles a plume of smoke being pulled back inside a chimney in kind of a reverse motion. But the birds enjoy quite a few acrobatics before they settle down. Maybe having that one last insect snack before bedtime. Sometimes there’s even more excitement as raptors show up to see if they can get in a snack as well. They don’t often get lucky, though, because the swifts are so fast.  This year is the first time I’ve personally seen Peregrines up there and they’re definitely fun to watch even though I don’t really want them to get the swifts.  Other years there have been Cooper’s Hawks as well.

Swifts eat mostly insects and, like everything else they do, they eat on the fly — no sitting around and waiting. Actually they couldn’t sit around if they wanted to because their feet don’t allow for it. They’re designed to cling to the inside of trees or walls and work on a principle similar to velcro. So that nighttime roost is the only time they’re sitting still.

If you want to catch up on the history of their life at Chapman, there’s an older video by Oregon Public Broadcasting that’s available on YouTube at Since that broadcast was made the school has replaced the heating system so the children don’t have to wear coats if it’s cool in September. The fun part of the story is that they were willing to and did for several years. The OPB story also shows a bird’s feet — since part of their presentation is about putting a couple of baby swifts into a chimney till they’re ready to fly. There are some other videos on YouTube as well that show the funneling effect. For more detail about the birds themselves, visit Cornell’s All About Birds
As one note on ornithology — there is such a bird as the Chapman’s Swift, but it doesn’t live here. It’s a South American bird. It’s just something of a coincidence that our Vaux’s Swift happens to like Chapman School. So you go to Chapman to see the swifts but they’re not “Chapman’s Swifts” as far as bird names go.

Audubon Society of Portland sets up a table with information most nights in September and staff and volunteers are available to answer your questions. Further info from Audubon is available at Swift Watch

This year we have even more excitement than usual. On Saturday, September 20, there will be a special walk in the afternoon from Montgomery Park to Chapman where there will be special events as well as the usual bird displays. To sign up go to : 

And coming up in October we have a documentary created by a relatively new Portlander who happened to move near Chapman and became fascinated by the swifts. It will be showing at Cinema 21 on October 2, 2008, and will be a benefit for the Audubon Society of Portland. A trailer for the film is posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vojNdQf53bQ   Tickets may be purchased in advance at

And in case you’re wondering, those bars are part of the fire escape — the camera is set up on the level above the nest.  The birds aren’t restricted in any way.