Audubon, Library offer Vaux’s Swift program

ROSEBURG, Ore. – The Umpqua Valley Audubon Society (UVAS) and Roseburg Public Library invite the community to the Facebook Live streaming event, “Vaux’s Swifts: A West Coast Story” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15.

Presenter Larry Schwitters will discuss the Vaux’s Happening project, which started in 2007 as a successful effort to save a school chimney that was one of only two well-known, big-number Vaux’s Swift roost sites in Washington state. The project has documented more than 200 roosting sites from the Yukon to Guatemala that have sheltered swifts more than 23 million times in the past 32 migrations.

UVAS, which has hosted local swift watches seasonally since 2011, has been submitting data since the project began. More information about UVAS is available on their website at www.umpquaaudubon.org.

Schwitters, who has a Master of Science degree from East Texas State University, spent 30 years as a public educator, mostly as a middle school science teacher and coach in the Renton, Wash., school district. His presentation will feature images and information captured by the project's chimney surveillance cameras, precision temperature recorders and radio tracking transmitters.

For more information about the project, visit the Vaux’s Happening website at www.vauxhappening.org.

A moderated Q&A session will follow the presentation. Questions may be submitted before the event to Library staff at library@cityofroseburg.org or 541-492-7051. Alternately, viewers who have a Facebook account may post questions during the event by commenting on the live stream.

To view the live stream, go to Facebook.com/RoseburgLibrary. A Facebook account is not required.