Per the website's cheerful insistence, we parked at Montgomery Park and walked three blocks along 27th to get to a lovely view of the school from the curb. But even before we could see the chimney we could hear the swifts, twittering away. When we looked up we were absolutely spellbound.
The sky was teeming with birds. It was memorizing. Swifts and swallows are the otters of the sky -- there is an frenetic exuberance to their path that comes from the diet of elusive bugs, but turns out looking like great fun. It lifts the spirits. The nearby hill featured about 50 or so people camped out with jackets and blankets applauding when the birds formed accidental formations. Children in the field turned into birds.
We gasped when a dangerous looking larger bird came darting in to sit protectively on the chimney and cheered when the mass of tiny birds chased him off. And all at once, the birds formed a spiral column and flew into the chimney.
I have never seen anything like it in my life. It looked like tiny pieces of black paper were being sucked in by a giant vacuum. Thousands of birds vying for space inside the chimney. After about a hundred made it inside the mass would regroup, circle around, form the column again, and it began again. To be sucked inside by fatigue and rapid blindness from the night. How do they do it? How do they keep from bumping into one another? How do they make it into the chimney so effortlessly?
I understand the chimney is kept on the school grounds exclusively for the purpose of this remarkable event. If I had money I would donate to help keep it there. Instead I suppose next year I could volunteer to man the Audubon Society table or mind the sandwich board at Montgomery Park. I could sweep bird droppings from the bottom of the flue. Something. I'll think of something.
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