Vaux's Swifts

Earlier this week we reported on the mysterious absence of Vaux’s Swifts around Roseburg. The Umpqua Valley Audubon Society wanted help tracking flocks of these migratory birds, and now the watch parties are back on after a thousand swifts were sighted around town.

A dire mystery has the Umpqua Valley Audubon Society asking the public for help: vast numbers of the migratory birds, Vaux’s Swifts, have disappeared. The hanging questions are: Why? And where have the swifts gone?

It’s the time of year when thousands of small birds called Vaux’s Swifts swarm around a defunct chimney on the University of Oregon campus. And like the pop star with the same last name, these Swifts have legions of fans.

Select locations in the Willamette Valley are hosting thousands of migratory birds right now.

Twice a year, Vaux’s Swifts migrate through the Willamette Valley. The little birds fly non-stop all day, gobbling up insects. When it’s time to roost for…