Sunday, September 27, 2009

Watching the swifts

Hazel and her entourage stayed in town this weekend since Dad was on-call.  She kept busy by attending the St. John's farmer's market, eating sausage and dancing polka at the Polish Festival, cheering Mom and Dad on at The Battle at Barlow cyclocross race, and watching the annual "bedding down of the swifts" at Chapman School with Sallyanne.

Every year, as the Vaux's swifts migrate through the Portland area, they roost in the Chapman School chimney.  For several evenings, it's quite an event as hundreds of thousands of birds fly through the sky and dive in to the chimney.  Hazel was enthralled.

This picture does not do justice to what the scene really looks like.

In between bouts of entertaining other spectators with her cuteness, Hazel stared at the swifts.

Mom and Hazel apparently cock their heads at the exact same angle.

Hazel quickly learned to say "Bird!"  Her language development has been fast and furious these days, though most of her words are conspicuously missing the last syllable, so "Bird!" sounds a lot like "Bir!"


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