After six official nights of swift monitoring, our official spring roost monitoring program ended with some more fascinating insights into Chimney Swift behaviour, Chimney Swift distribution, and that glorious ability of swifts to confuddle even the sharpest of minds.
Before jumping into our June 8th update, a quick recap on those monitoring reports between June 4th and June 7th which have not been covered yet. Kathy, Jake, Beth and Adolf submitted their report for the Assiniboine School roost a wee bit late, but that doesn’t matter, a very respectable 107 entries were recorded. They also counted 2 bird per chimney at the Carillon and King’s Theatre.
Luc was unable to get to the church St-Jean-Baptiste in June 4th, but did get out on June 6th. His report was fun reading – another bemused swifter!
‘Am I ever confused! five swifts entered the chimney. Are they migrants? I thought only one couple would nest in a chimney, with sometimes a helper or two from a previous brood. It’s the first time this year that this many birds enter the chimney.’
Gord counted 2 entries at the MTS building in Portage la Prairie on the same evening, with a total of around 8 birds in the air.
There’s the update completed up until June 7th. Now to the night of June 8th. Following the lousiest forecast ever given, volunteers managed to get out to towns and cities from Dauphin to La Broquerie, and a few places in the middle. Thunderstorms eh!
We HAVE to begin in Morden, and David’s quest to find where the pair of swifts are roosting/nesting. Here is his summary report of the evening:
‘The final official monitoring session was my most successful. I found a chimney that is being used! 321 Stephen St. This is Lucky’s Chinese Restaurant that I suspected from my last monitoring session. 2 confirmed entries and 1 possible entry earlier in the session. The two entries were about 20 seconds apart so I’m hoping it is a mating pair.’
Congratulations David for the many hours of determined watching, followed by a very deserved and rewarding grand revealing.
Mike and Michéle had an interesting evening in St-François-Xavier, a total of 5 entries over the period of the evening followed by some bizarre nocturnal entries and exits.
Over in Brandon, Margaret and Millie had their faithful pair of swifts, the final bird entering at 10:11pm.
In Portage la Prairie, Cal had some entry/exit cycles and a total of 3 birds in the Tupper Street Church chimney.
David in La Broquerie broke into poetry, a possible first for the evening updates:
‘Whether the weather be fine, Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold, Or whether the weather be hot,
I decided to weather the weather, Whatever the weather,
Whether I liked it or not, so I monitored the La Broquerie lot.
Considering your advice about early roosting when rainy, I arrived early at around 8.30 and at 8.39 there were 2 entries into the small chimney. At 8.43 there were 2 entries into the large chimney.
Then the weather started to brighten with sun on the horizon even though it was still cloudy overhead. At 9.04 there were 2 exits from the large chimney and shortly thereafter I saw 7 in the air at the same time. If the first 2 in the small chimney stayed down that would make 9 in total. However with the sky clearing, the fun had just begun.
Scribbling on a pad of paper I use an up arrow (⬆) for an exit and a down arrow (⬇) for an entry. So starting at 9.23 after subtracting the exits from the entries I end up with 10 entries, the last entry being at 9.55. And if the first 2 entries at 8.39 stayed down the grand total would be 12. I suspect I must have missed a few exits, especially from the small chimney as they are very hard to see. Nevertheless a very successful evening.
We need more chimneys for them to nest in.’
For those unfamiliar with swift monitoring, this sounds like a hectic evening of fun watching. Speaking of fun swift watching, we cannot go on without delivering the report from the Moorgate by MCSI Coordinator, Tim.
‘I had an interesting evening. I went back to the Moorgate on Portage Avenue. I soon got distracted by frequent swift activity on the south side of Portage, the Moorgate being on the north side. On more than one occasion, I documented swifts entering a new site over the road. Eventually curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to ditch the Moorgate, and watch the south Portage swifts.
Looking at the chimney where I had noted swifts entering, I was a little perturbed to see one flue lined and the other screened by a pest cage. Surely I was mistaken. A few minutes later, a swift tried to enter through the cage and deflected off it. Yes, it literally hit the cage and jolted away in a different direction. A minute later, the same swift, presumably, tried again, and this time went straight through the cage.
I moved across to look at the next apartment with a chimney which appeared half open, and half screened by another cage. Later on, a pair of swifts came into roost. STRAIGHT THROUGH THE CAGE ON THIS CHIMNEY. The top must have fallen through on both cages.
So there we have it, swifts can get through these contraptions if the top falls off, and it’s highly likely if we can get them removed, we can restore more habitat.’
Even more bizarre, Tim found two more similar chimneys the following morning in Osborne Village while taking his kids to the splashpad.
So there we have it, swifts can fly through a busted pest screen. GO SWIFTS!
Sabina tried a possible new site on Confusion Corner but lucked out, as did Lynnea and Adam in East Kildonan. Barbara also had no luck at the new Old Grace Coop site.
John continued his 303 Assiniboine vigil, counting 2 in one chimney and 30 in the other. Of interest was the fact that Linda also counted this site, the two of them must have been in different locations! Her count of 31 was pretty much exactly the same (there is always going to be an error with larger groups of birds, so a one bird difference actually helps confirm the precision of the volunteers – call it within the margin of error).
Up to Dauphin now. Ken and Jan now have helpers. Yippee! The report from the larger roosting site was as follows:
‘Things started slowly with a pair circling about 8:43 but then the numbers started to climb, by 9:08 there were 7 and 9:45 about 10+ more showed up, then the clouds got heavier and things got darker and the swifts started to go down but only a few at a time which was nice for counting but it got too dark to see and we knew there were still birds circling.’
The total was 18 in the chimney. The second new site was as follows:
‘As this site is close to the main roost, there were lots of times birds making a big circle were seen over both sites. Birds here were very vocal. One swift went down and 45 minutes later left the chimney but returned later resulting in 3 in chimney. It is likely therefore that this might be a nesting chimney with a helper. At end of observation period, swifts were still heard chittering overhead although not seen.’
Dauphin reports always seem to end with swifts in the air still, and no one able to see them!
Finally, Gerald, looked at a new site in Lockport. A swift had been watched entering the Maintenance Compound chimney for the dam earlier on Friday. Unfortunately, no swifts were observed at the same spot that evening. Maybe they went to bed early?
‘Finally’, did we say ‘finally’? We meant, finally for Friday, because some of you were out on Saturday as well. John did one of his legendary multiple site checks on Saturday. There was nothing at 515 Waterfront, but he did have a pair doing entries and exists at 527 Waterfront. Sites on Ellice and Stradbrook did not turn up any swifts this time, but knowing John, he will be back to look again!
Later that evening, Cam and Diann, were out in Lac du Bonnet. The report was as follows:
‘Initially no swift or swallows observed
20:27 3 swifts in air, 2 somewhat together and one apart
Casey’s Inn
20:47– one entry
21:00– one entry
No exits
Gran’s Bakery
No entries or exits
So once again we have an unaccounted for swift!’
This town appears to have a rogue swift every time!
At the Silver Heights, Bob and Valerie reported:
‘Glad to see two swifts entering chimney at roosting time, but no other activity.’
Frank and Jacquie recruited Cathy to help them make sense of Providence College, reporting:
‘Three of us watched the skies around the Providence College campus last night (without benefit of Timmies I might add).
We saw eight CHSW overhead shortly after arrival.
We observed nine CHSW entering the chimneys: three birds in each chimney this time. The CHSW were very vocal this evening.’
Not sure how Frank survived such an evening with no visit to Timmies, but thanks to Cathy for helping with the watch.
Barb and Rob with sick dog to care for, decided to do a bit of daytime monitoring in La Salle and St Adolphe on the 10th. As ever with Barb, the interpretation is very detailed, and worth reading for anyone less familiar with swift behaviour and life-cycles.
‘At 8:15 AM in St Adolphe, the pair of Church swifts were busy flying through tree tops…then I had to go clean the hall…
At 10:15 AM, the vigil at La Salle started. Immediately seen were the pair plus single swift. It was a lovely show they put on for 75 minutes – trio flying, feeding, “V” displays between the close flying pair etc. Just as the Church service finished and folks started to drift away, the single swift dropped into the west chimney. A couple of minutes later, one of the pair dropped in then the second of the pair dropped in. So all 3 were in the west chimney and stayed there for the next half hour. After roasting in the sun and dealing with very strong wind gusts from the south, I left for home.
So nest building is underway…the next stage of nesting to look for is incubation. With a nominal July 1 hatching date and an 18-21 day incubation period, there should be partner exchanges starting soon – possibly June 14th. At a site without a helper, monitors will see a swift drop into the chimney and usually within a minute or two, a swift will leave. Typically, these partner exchanges will take place once an hour.’
Luc submitted his second report for the 10th, had an early exit (so hopefully nesting is happening). This bird was eventually joined by 2 more birds. Only thing is, there were 5 in the air! So maybe his excess birds from earlier in the week ended up back in the school? More to follow on this we are pretty sure!
And that is it for all our formal monitoring but not for the swifts, and we would suggest, not for MCSI as well. There’s more to come in the next few days, including plans for weekly monitoring, some local blitzes, and an update on where we are finding new communities with swifts, so please watch this space.
— Tim Poole
