Witness an amazing show of nature at Swift Night Out as thousands of acrobatic ChimneySwifts circle and swoop into Geneva Lake Museum’s tall chimney. This awesome spectacle
happens every year in early September as the small birds gather in large groups to begin their
fall migration to South America. Swifts are common to this area. During the day they fly over
the lakefront, devouring small insects, and rest every night in some of the uncapped brick
chimneys in the area. In late August and early September they begin to gather in large
numbers and circle the chimneys at dusk. Then, in a seemingly magical moment, the circling
birds dive into the chimneys to roost.
This year the City of Lake Geneva’s Avian Committee celebrates this natural
phenomenon on Thursday, September 5 at the Geneva Lake Museum, 255 Mill St. in
downtown Lake Geneva. Swift Night Out is a FREE educational event, featuring these
amazing chimney-diving birds, food trucks for folks and the Schlitz Audubon’s famous “Raptors
and Friends Program.” The annual event is open to anyone and everyone who appreciates the
birds that populate our community.
Activities begin at 5:00 pm with food for purchase from local food trucks. At 6:00 pm the
Schlitz Audubon Nature Center will present a special birding program featuring a bald eagle and
other raptors. At dusk, the crowd is invited to go outside to watch the migrating Chimney Swifts
gather by the thousands and begin to circle the museum’s chimney. As if at a single cue, these
little aerobatic swifts swoop, creating a vortex as they dive inside to roost for the night.