The annual swift watch

Every year in September the Vaux Swifts circle around the chimney of Chapman School and a few thousand people gather on the hillside beside the school for a final picnic and the spectacle of thousands of tiny birds flying into the chimney they've been flying into for generations. I blipped Bella watching them when she was nine months old, and this year it is her Mom's turn to take the spotlight, with Bella and Evan in the Extras. It was a slightly-overcast, slightly-chilly evening and Evan loved studying the handout we got from the Audubon society, explaining what Swifts eat and how they cling to each other's backs in the chimney. There is something deeply reassuring, in these terrible times, about birds that behave predictably, about cycles of nature that repeat themselves, about social rituals celebrating natural changes.