Some nice words about Swifty's Big Flight from a fellow Swift Watcher...

Coincidently, that same week in January, we received a letter from Lee Jackson of Portland Audubon announcing his recently published children’s book about a young Vaux’s Swift heading south for the winter. Lee Jackson subsequently send us a copy of his book, Swifty’s Big Flight, for review. I read it to our two grand-children who live here, ages 4 and 7, and gave it to our daughter who teaches fourth grade. The reviews from the children were very favorable. They enjoyed the simple but endearing illustrations and our grandson, age 4, liked to follow the migration on the map. He also liked the hawk attack and the safe escape to the chimney (oops, I might have given away the ending to this “cliff hangar”, pun intended!) Our first grade grand-daughter liked to hear about the manner in which the swifts fly and wondered if it were true that they can fly sleeping and do they really have Velcro on their feet. I asked them if they would like me to read it to them again sometime or if they would like to have a copy of this book. They both nodded yes. Our daughter did not think that it would be an appealing book for fourth graders unless they were doing a research project on Vaux’s Swifts or unless they were all ready familiar with Vaux’s Swift colonies. She noted that it is good to have accurate ornithological information in easy to read form and found the facts at the back of the book very helpful. I also enjoyed refreshing my knowledge of this amazing bird and realized that I had been saying its name incorrectly; according to Jackson the accepted pronunciation of Vaux is “vawks” and not “voh”. As a member of our local mosquito board I was also interested in the estimated amount of flying insects these birds consumed. I wrote Lee Jackson asking him if he knew of any definitive studies on mosquito intake by Vaux’s Swifts. He responded that it didn’t know of any, then added: “ I can tell you anecdotally that we live near a big Vaux's Swift migration site and have no trouble with mosquitoes or other bugs! Just a lot of bird "doo" during September!”

Proceeds from Swifty’s Big Flight benefit the Audubon Society of Portland’s Swift Watch program. The cost of this 32 page soft cover book is $7.95. A copy will be available for preview at our sales table at FAS General Meeting in April and at the Silent Auction in May. For more information regarding the purchase of this book please contact Lee Jackson (thinkfast4@aol.com).