September 9, 2012, three of us did the long trip up to Sedro-Woolley to see what might be the best Vaux Swift chimney in the world (we’ll have to wait until this season’s tallies are completed to know that). This was the old Northern State Hospital, and our hosts were Skagit Audubon with a large group of enthusiastic swifters including head counter Tim Manns whom we met last year. What a beautiful campus this is, now housing the Job Corps, but closed to the public, so we were special guests. 5500 Swifts and one persistent Merlin entertained us for an hour before finally going in earlier than expected, perhaps because of the clouds. A truly wonderful show, but they have been known to have 20,000, so the best may be yet to come up there.

Tallest swift stack in the state/Diane Y-Q, host Tim Manns, Carol Smith, and Adam Trent