No sooner is there a chill in the air than the pulse of birders quickens everywhere. Like spring, it’s time to get outside and hit the trails and hot spots as one of North America’s great natural events unfolds for those willing to check out the trees and scour the skies. Warblers, vireos, thrushes and tanagers will be working their way south, while raptors, swifts and swallows follow from above. Passerines form feeding flocks offering the possibility of 5 to 10 species in a single tree while raptors form large kettles offering the possibility of hundreds in a single sky. 

Connect with birds and nature this fall. Join us for our online program on where to bird, and go out to count Chimney Swifts as they swirl down into their roost. 

Enjoy, and good birding!

Join international bird guide Simon Thompson for an exciting program on fall birding in the Blue Ridge. It's sure to motivate folks to get out and bird! With all of the migrant birds beginning to wing their way south, fall is an excellent time of the year here in Western North Carolina. We have open farmland and hedgerows, marshes and lakes, forests and mountain ridges and all have their own selection of birds. We can watch warblers streaming over Ridge Junction in the Blue Ridge, look for gulls and waterfowl at Lake Julian, and spot sparrows in the fields at Warren Wilson College - and these are just 3 of the great local birding areas. Join us to explore some of the great birding spots here in Western NC.

Chimney swifts, like other aerial insectivores, are a declining species in most of their range. Your help with roost surveys this autumn will assist UNCA biology professor Andrew Laughlin and his students in determining how many sites are used and which type of sites are most important in our area.

Many bird species form large communal roosts during fall migration and throughout the non-breeding season. Chimney Swifts roosts are particularly noticeable for a few reasons: 1) they chatter constantly as they gather together, eventually forming a large mass of swirling birds prior to entering the roost site after sunset, and 2) they are not shy about using human-made structures as communal roosting sites, even in the middle of urban areas. Indeed, this species has become largely dependent on brick chimneys, not only as roosting sites but also as breeding sites.

But how many and what type of chimneys do the swifts depend on in our area for their communal roosts? How do they select one chimney over another? Do swifts prefer urban chimneys during autumn migration, or will they use rural chimneys, too? How large do the largest roosts get, and how long does the peak roosting season here last? These are all questions that you can help answer by either surveying a chimney swift roost near you or letting us know where such a roosting chimney is located!

If you already know of a chimney swift roost site near you, follow the steps below. If you do not know of a roost site, email me at alaughli@unca.edu for a few possible locations you can choose from to survey. Please read about survey protocols here.

Basic survey protocol:

1) Arrive to the area a little before sunset. The birds usually start to descend into the chimney 10-15 minutes after sunset, but a few early birds enter first. Make note of the time when the first and last bird enter the chimney.

2) Estimate the total number of birds that enter the chimney.

3) Make note of weather variables: temperature, wind, rain, and cloud cover.

4) Upload this data to this online data entry form.

Dr. Andrew Laughlin,

Early in fall every year, Chimney Swifts fill the sky at sunset with a one-of -a kind acrobatic performance. The Blue Ridge Audubon’s annual Swift Night Out celebrates this incredible happening with a group viewing at the Civic Center Parking Deck. This year we are inviting everyone to get involved and go individually to see the amazing sight of hundreds of Chimney Swifts entering their evening roost. If you’d like to be involved in a Chimney swift survey count and report your viewing to help with UNCA's research, please do so at this link. You can also submit an eBird report. If you'd like to participate in the count, we're asking folks to count during September 24th through October 1st. We will report the results in our November newsletter.

Plan to arrive at the chimney at least a half an hour before sunset. Enjoy the show and then try to count the Swifts as they enter the chimney. Log the results on the survey form. Besides the Civic Center parking deck, you can often see Swifts at these other sites: the Sherwin Williams on Merrimon, 70 Woodfin Place, 84 Coxe Ave, and 12 Culvern St. We’d love to hear about any other chimneys they are using so be creative and start looking! Please email us at blueridgeaudubon@gmail.com with your stories, pictures, and chimney locations.

For more information about Chimney Swifts, check out this Audubon North Carolina fact sheet.

Many thanks to all the folks who came out to the Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary work day on September 5^th. They removed a whopping 20 wheelbarrow loads of Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum). From Rutgers Cooperative Extension: “Japanese stiltgrass is an invasive Asian grass that threatens native plants and natural habitats in the eastern United States. Stiltgrass is identifiable by its pale green, lance-shaped leaves that have a silvery stripe along the midrib of the upper leaf. The leaves are alternate and range in length from 1 to 3 inches. Stiltgrass grows in extensive patches, displacing less competitive native species. Each plant can produce up to 1,000 seeds, and once in the soil, seeds can remain viable for up to 5 years. Left unchecked, native vegetation in susceptible areas can be overtaken in three to five years."

Our deepest thanks again to these wonderful volunteers who helped us eliminate stiltgrass: Phil Croll, Julie Crosson, Gus Crosson (age 10), Florrie Funk, Alicia and Art Hulse, Diane Matheson, William Sadler, Cathy Walsh, and high schoolers Rowan McMullan from the Franklin School of Innovation, Anna Sawdy, Sarah Evans, Cooper Maddox and Wyatt Turner, all from Asheville High School.

Henry B. Hough

Extinction of species has occurred frequently throughout Earth’s history. The Mesozoic Era of dinosaurs was ended by the Chicxulub asteroid 66 million years ago. That ending ushered in the Cenozoic Era which geologists have divided into seven epochs, each defined by its combination of distinctive environments and its dominant plants and animals. The seventh epoch, the Holocene, began about 11,000 years ago with the retreat of the large glaciers and the rise of the early humans. The number and variety of species on Earth was at its zenith during this epoch. An eighth epoch has been suggested, the Anthropocene, the epoch of Man, to better reflect the impact of humans on the variety of life on this planet. One of the most famous first extinctions was a gentle bird that existed for millions of years and was eliminated in less than 100. Continue here to read the tragic story of the Dodo.