Portland Swift Watch 2011

I joined my daughter, Polly, on the lawn at Chapman School for a picnic and to witness the spectacular display of Vaux’s Swifts as they gather to roost in the school’s chimney. Volunteers from Portland Audubon were there present information about the swift.

Chapman School

Swifts are insect eating birds that migrate south each fall.  At sunset during migration they choose a place where dozens to thousands of birds can roost.  Since the late 1980’s the Chapman chimney has been one of these roosting sites. Vaux's Swift

Coming to view the swifts as they prepare to roost – has become a very popular activity at the Chapman School site in recent years.  Most evenings in September there are in excess of 2000 people gathered on the school lawn and neighboring Wallace Park grounds to watch and listen as the swifts gather overhead before entering the chimney. While they wait, children take advantage of the dry grass on the slope to "sled" down on cardboard brought from home.  Most people bring a picnic and it is fun to make new friends with the folks on the next blanket. Polly walks over from her flat to watch, several evenings a week. It is such a unique thing -  one of the many great things about living in Portland.  As we watched the Swifts circle, a hawk came from a nearby fir tree to see what was on the menu for his dinner. The crowds cheered and clapped as he chased swifts and they, in turn, chased him. He finally got his dinner. In the fall swifts congregate in large groups as they prepare for their migration southward to Central America and Venezuela. During September large groups of swifts pass through the Portland-Vancouver Metropolitan region. It is not uncommon for these migrating swifts to use chimneys to roost in during the night and once a population of swifts locates an appropriate chimney they are likely to return year after year. Groups of roosting swifts can range in size from just a few individuals to as many as 35,000 in some larger smokestacks. Chapman School in Northwest Portland houses the larges known roost of migrating swifts in the world! Typically the swifts will only stay a couple of weeks before continuing their migratory journey.

The Imaginary Invalid

Love is funny. Love is trickery. Love is…smelly? It’s certainly a merry-go-round of misplaced desires and hidden agendas in Constance Congdon’s fresh and hilarious new take on Molière’s skewering of a health care crisis from an entirely different century. To quell his growing pile of medical bills, Monsieur Argan, a chronic hypochondriac, will go to any length to marry his daughter off to a doctor. Of course, his daughter has other ideas. A narcotic cocktail of romantic triangles, double entendres and mistaken identities ensues, promising to leave you gasping, giggling and possibly…in stitches.

Portland Center Stage

Gerding Theater at the Armory

The Imaginary Invalid Trailer2 from Portland Center Stage on Vimeo.

It was a grand day. We had lunch with our dear friends from Montana visiting their daughter here in Portland. Other guests were long time mutual friends. After a delicious lunch prepared by Julie, who is a trained chef and restaurant owner, we all headed down town Portland to see this wickedly funny play.  It was a hoot. Afterward Polly and I stayed down town and went to Faneul Restaurant for Happy Hour. Polly had eaten there several times before when the French chef was still there and loved the food. Today, it was less than we expected. It was as if everything we had had just a little something that wasn't quite right. Flavors that just didn't quite work. The place she had wanted to go (50 Plates) was closed for a private party.