When you think of swifts, you probably think of Chapman Elementary School. But there is another spot that hosts even more birds putting on a dazzling show. On Wednesday evening, 11 people stood or sat near the corner of Third and D streets in Rainier, along a hill overlooking the roof of Riverside Community Church, about 45 miles north of Portland. From their vantage point, they could see not only thousands of roosting Vaux’s swifts, but Mount St. Helens in the distance and ships passing along the Columbia River. Since 2019, the Rainier site has been consistently one of the largest monitored roosting locations for Vaux’s swifts along the Pacific coast. Only the triple-chimneys of the McNear Brickyard in San Francisco have recorded larger numbers, according to the tracking site Vaux’s Happening. Click the link in our bio to read more Video by Samantha Swindler/The Oregonian #Oregon #Swifts #Rainier