During most of the month of September thousands of Vaux's Swifts roost (sleep) in the chimney of a local elementary school. Every night around dusk the birds--thousands of them-- start gathering, flying in circles above the chimney, and then when they are finally ready, they all start pouring into the chimney until they are all in for the night. Sunday, the night we went, it took nearly half an hour for all of the birds to swoop into their night-time home.
Portlanders take the activities of these birds pretty seriously. I've been told that on some nights there can be as many as 2000 people gathered around the school to watch them. Often there are representatives from the Audubon Society there to answer questions.
Sunday night there were maybe a couple hundred people there. The mood was festive. There were two different birthday celebrations near us--complete with singing. There was a lot of wine and cheese, and many many blankets, dogs and toddlers.
Matt and I arrived early with a couple of chairs (mostly for pregnant me) a blanket, and makings for a super tasty picnic--all as part of our anniversary celebration. We set up our little spot, ate, chatted with our neighbors a bit, read, and relaxed. Eventually the birds started gathering above, and would occasionally go into a cone-like, swirling formation over the school--sort of tornado like, but in a totally non-life-threatening kind of way.
It took quite a while for the birds to all gather before the big event, and as the birds spent more and more time over our heads, Matt started worrying about being pooped upon. His solution--he put his book on his head so that he would at least not end up with poo in his hair. I thought we probably didn't have anything to worry about, but sure enough, about five minutes after the book took up residence on his head a bird pooped on his shoulder. When Matt expressed displeasure about the poo the woman next to us jumped in and very sincerely (with a tiny bit of scorn) said "you know that's good luck". She seemed quite disappointed that Matt had showed displeasure regarding the poo. I giggled and almost on cue a bird pooped on my hand.
Clearly Matt and I have *a lot* of good luck headed our way.
Good luck--what a lovely anniversary gift.
Eventually all the swirling birds-full-o-luck made their way to the chimney, and when the first bunch of birds headed down the chimney, people clapped and cheered. There's nothing I love more than soaking in Portland vibes with my sweet husband. Cheering on the birds with a bunch of kooky Portlanders was a lovely way to celebrate our anniversary.
Happy second anniversary Matt!
I love you even more than I love Portland!
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