I was there Tuesday night. I should go again before they leave for another year.

I used to live at 25th and Pettygrove and learned of this phenomenon the organic way.

I was out on my small balcony late in the afternoon during my first September living there. I looked up and the clear blue sky seemed to be moving. It was something like an hallucination.

When I looked closer I realized something really WAS going on so I dashed out the front door and wandered a half block to witness the Chapman swifts for the first time.

Back then the crowds were pretty small. Here in 2010, I wonder if they've set up food carts.

It's definitely worth seeing.

Used to go with my niece's preschool. Highlight of the evening? Before the swifts descended and while you're trying to entertain restless kids?

Rolling down the hill. Yes, even the adults. That's when I became the "cool" aunt. Well, for a few seconds, anyway.

A few of those swifts once nested in a chimney of mine in Tigard. Any noise we made in the living room (near the fireplace) resulted in a cacophony of cheeps and chirps that echoed into our house lasting but a few moments before calming down. Sometimes they’d wail in the middle of the night, it would sound like a house full of birds. My cats, meanwhile, eagerly parked themselves at the hearth. (No luck.) It took a few weeks, but the babies eventually took off and we wire-meshed the chimney. And got some sleep again.