Not long ago, Larry Schwitters was a mountain climber with a day job as a science teacher. Thanks to that classic Pacific Northwest blend of talents, he’s now the head of a conservation movement that has mobilized citizens from California to the Yukon.
In “Seeking Swifts,” a free talk on Thursday evening, Oct. 24, at Overlake Park Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Schwitters will take listeners inside the increasingly rare brick chimneys favored by Vaux’s Swifts, and he’ll explain how amateur observers are helping save such chimneys for the sake of the birds’ survival.
The free public event is hosted by Eastside Audubon. Doors open for hospitality at 6:30 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m. Overlake Park Presbyterian Church is at 1836 156th Ave. N.E.
Vaux’s (rhymes with “foxes”) Swift is a small, insect-eating bird with pointed wings that flutter like a bat’s and a stubby body that’s often compared to a cigar. It is often seen on the Eastside while migrating in the fall and spring.
During migration, it prefers to rest in big, old, hollow trees. Now that such trees are rare, flocks of the swifts often seek out brick chimneys instead. In Monroe in the fall, they can sometimes can be seen diving by the thousands into the chimney at Frank Wagner Center.
But brick chimneys also are becoming fewer and farther between, and Schwitters is now the leader of Vaux’s Happening, a program in which volunteers search for those chimneys that remain and document their use by Vaux’s Swifts.
Schwitters was the man behind the campaign that raised $100,000 to save the Frank Wagner chimney, now the site of an annual celebration of the swifts’ return every fall. His work has received the support of National Audubon and recognition in publications such as Smithsonian.
His talk is partly a view into the behavior of a social bird, partly the success story of a growing conservation movement in which anyone can get involved, and partly an anecdote about the way one life passion can lead to another one entirely unforeseen.
Eastside Audubon is the National Audubon Society chapter active in Bellevue, Bothell, Carnation, Duvall, Issaquah, Kirkland, North Bend, Redmond, Sammamish, Snoqualmie, Woodinville, and unincorporated East King County.
