The final week of monitoring appears to be with us – but these are swifts, so who knows if this really the end!
Following last weeks update, Rudolf in Winnipeg sent the following:
‘I saw 5+ swift over Fraser’s Grove Park around mid-day yesterday (28th)’
Ken and Jan did a final check in Dauphin on August 29th, and reported that:
‘This is to advise you that today we were able to watch 2 of the 3 chimneys in Dauphin and report ZERO counts at both and due to the proximity of the 3rd chimney it would be appropriate to give it also a zero count. For anyone that does birding, around 8:24 PM there were 8+ night hawks flying over the main roost going SE to NW.’
Nothing left, but a fantastic year of monitoring in Dauphin again!
The busiest swifting has been again Lower Fort Garry and Selkirk. There will be more news from here in the coming days, but for now, we have some interesting updates.
On August 30th, Gerald sent the following:
‘No action at the Merchant’s Hotel in Selkirk this evening.’
The same evening, Nia sent the following:
‘Linda and I did the fort Aug 30. 8:05- 1 out, 8:15 – 1 in. Total in chimney = 1. Saw 3 flying at one point. Again we Lost birds.’
Again from Nia:
‘Linda and I did the fort last night (Sept 1) and had a confusing evening. What those swifts are up to we have no idea. We will monitor again on Monday. Here’s the results: Total entries – 6, Total exits – 2, Max in chimney – 4′
Gerald reported that:
‘No activity at the Lockport bridge Monday evening (3rd September).’
On the same evening, Robert did not see a single swift at any of the Selkirk Mental Health Centre chimneys. Linda and Nia put in another heroic evening, counting 2 swifts in at the Fort.
I suspect this will be our final update, and we will soon have a full season summary available for everyone to enjoy.
Thanks you, thank you, thank you for an absolutely wonderful season. We can safely say that Manitoba’s Chimney Swift volunteers are absolutely brilliant!
— Tim Poole
