Swift Night Out! (September version)

Name: Swift Night Out! (September version)
Start: 2025-09-13T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-13T20:00:00-04:00
Location: Zim's Cafe

Schedule

Sat Sep 13 2025 at 06:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

Zim's Cafe | Lexington, KY

Join CKAS for dinner at Zim's cafe followed by the September 'A Swift Night Out' count. At the August count the downtown Peregrine Falcons treated us to an aerial display during dinner. Hopefully they will be back again :) We then saw an amazing display of over a thousand swifts forming spectacular massive groups and "swiftnado"ing into the giant chimney roost.
Dinner at 6:00 pm, and at about 7:15 pm (30+/- minutes before sunset), we'll head over to this year's 'swiftiest' (no, not Taylor) location (the roof of the Helix on Main parking garage) where we'll observe the roost and count/estimate the number of swifts that enter. No binoculars needed, the birds will be that close (but feel free to bring binoculars).
NOTE: You are welcome to join us for the count even if you don't join us for dinner.
A Swift Night Out started in 2001 as a continent-wide effort to raise awareness about and encourage interest in Chimney Swifts. As summer draws to a close and the swifts have finished raising their young, these fascinating aerial acrobats begin to congregate in communal roosts prior to their migration in the fall. Some roosts may consist of extended family units comprised of half a dozen birds or so, but larger sites can host hundreds or even thousands of swifts!
Although A Swift Night Out stopped collecting count reports in 2017, CKAS has continued our local count since we believe the data is useful.
Target species: Chimney Swift, Peregrine Falcon, Rock Dove (falcons need to eat too!)