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swiftwatch



Friends and colleagues,

 The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary in
Virginia is seeking continent-wide information on chimney swift roost sites.
In late August, we launched a website to that effect which can be accessed
at www.swiftwatch.org.  This effort has two purposes.  The first is to
generate a range-wide registry of communal roost sites for the species.  The
second is to access information on spatial and temporal patterns of
migration to assist in the long-term conservation of chimney swifts and
their important stopover habitats.

 The website fully discusses the scope and objectives of SwiftWatch, offers
assistance with finding and counting roosting birds, and provides both
on-line and downloadable data forms.  Since our primary objective is to
first identify all roost sites we are asking observers to submit an online
site registration form before providing survey data.  Upon receiving the
site registration information we will respond back with a unique site code
that will be used when submitting roost count data.  The site registration
data and survey data will be entered into a searchable database and be
available on-line for public use later this season.

 You may have recently been involved with the Driftwood Wildlife Association
's  "A Swift Night Out" monitoring program.  We have been in touch with Paul
and Georgean Kyle (Driftwood directors) and are providing data from that
weekend effort, and they are cooperating fully with our effort   The Kyles
have a long history of swift nest site conservation and public education.
Our intention is to focus fully on migration ecology and develop a North
American database of roost sites.  We are also seeking status information on
roost sites throughout the migration period, as well as historical sites.
Please visit www.swiftwatch.org for additional information and a chance to
advance the state of knowledge on chimney swift migration and stopover
ecology.

 Thanks in advance for your assistance with this effort.

SwiftWatch staff
Center for Conservation Biology
College of William and Mary
PO Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA  23187-8795
PH:  757-221-1645
Fax: 757-221-1650
Email: conbio@wm.edu
Web:   http://www.ccb-wm.org