After the lunchtime thunderstorm in Winnipeg, we are hoping for brighter weather to watch and count swifts this evening. As ever, we will begin one hour ahead of sundown, and go right through to 30 minutes after. If the weather does though make a turn for the worse, and you are threatened by a lightning storm, please act with caution – safety is paramount. We will obviously do the monitoring a day later in these circumstances.
As a little bit of lead-up, we have some more reports from May 30th and the weekend.
Beginning in Selkirk, on the 30th, Robert, Donna and Winona watched the Selkirk Mental Health Centre and counted 10 swifts enter the large stack and 2 enter the yellow brick building. Ray and Sybil have been watching the Merchant’s Hotel. They have now counted 4 swifts enter the main chimney on two occasions, the 28th and 30th. Winona had also counted 4 swifts on the 21st at this location. All seem to be roosting, with no demonstrable evidence of nest building.
Gerald has been watching chimneys in Lower Fort Garry and Lockport. On the 28th he observed 2 swifts using the southeast building at the fort. On the 29th, he watched the two chimneys at the St Andrew’s Lock and Dam Compound in Lockport. There was clearly an active breeding attempt in one of the chimneys, with a pair on site. There was a single swift in the other chimney.
Unfortunately, Cam and Diann are having a quiet few days in Lac du Bonnet:
‘No swifts seen or heard in Lac du Bonnet. Diann had one moment of excitement at Grans bakery when at 20:42 she thought a swift had gone down the chimney, but it turned out to be a swallow had landed on the edge! Several birds did some sneaky flybys but these were also probably swallows which were more numerous and vocal than previous nights.’
Back to Winnipeg. Peter reported from the Hampton Church in St James, observed on the 31st:
‘NO swifts at St. Ann’s RC Church. A nice fly-by of a Nighthawk tonight was reward enough for me. I heard a couple of others that were either too high … or too low behind the trees … for me to see. Also, because I was about two blocks away from Assiniboine School, I could watch the birds circle that chimney.’
Kelly-Anne observed a pair using the chimney at 44 Academy on the 30th as well, the first time they had been observed here in 2019.
Francene and her team at the Old Grace Housing Coop are still to see a swift.
Rudolf in East Kildonan reported the following:
‘I spent from 8:55 to 9:40 at the Northdale Shopping Centre. Initially there were at least 8, but probably 10 birds ripping around. At 9:12 two birds entered the chimney at 1010 Brazier together and I did not see them reappear. It must be said that I did not look in that direction constantly, as I was also keeping an eye on other birds and other chimneys. Two to three birds continued to fly over on occasion, but no entries in other chimneys were noted.’
Lynnea and Adam went on a freestyle swift outing on the 31st along Archibald. Having first seen a pair into a new site, the magnificently named Niakwa Park Plaza at 1310 Archibald, they went onto finding a second new site at 223 Archibald, the Archibald Storage Building. 2 entered the chimney on the latter.
Blair took the search for swifts to a new level, discovering a single bird entering the Nelson MacIntyre Collegiate on St Mary’s on the 2nd. This was a significant moment, this being a chimney that was first watched in 2007, yet before this summer, no one had ever recorded use by swifts.
In Osborne Village, Barbara sent an interesting report from her balcony on Saturday evening:
‘Sitting at my balcony window just now: Between 9:20 and 9:35 : 11 CHSW circling high over Osborne Street bridge. 9 eventually flew east downriver, 2 disappeared just west of us, potentially at Augustine, or the chimney at 395 River, or 94 Roslyn.’
From the same area, Tim recorded a daytime entry this very morning at 395 River.
That should bring us to date, apart from a short update from Barb in St Adolphe:‘Saturday, I waited until early afternoon to monitor and watched Main St/Brodeur’s where nothing happened save for one exit from BRODEUR’s! First time all week…over at the Club, there was strong activity in the SE and activity in the NE but still no confirmed pair.Sunday = game on! I watched the Club for 2 hours (another late morning start with another near freezing beginning to the day). The SE pair was in and out together and a single swift used the NE chimney; so all was continuing status quo. Over at Brodeur’s, I saw another entry/exit cycle but didn’t catch a glimpse of Church birds. So back last night for an epic head snapping session – had daytime activity then a pair roosting at the Church. Also, another round of daytime activity took place at Brodeur’s. During the roosting hour at Brodeur’s, it was like watching a popcorn maker toss up swifts out of the chimney – after flitty in and out and in and out activity, 2 swifts seem to have settled for the night as dark plunged the rim into “that which an observer cannot see” territory.Suzanne has sent news that they saw 2 noisy swifts entering together at 6 PM on Friday night. How much fun is it to kick back in the yard and enjoy that spectacle as dinner is cooking on the bbq!’
So stay dry this evening, and hopefully we will look froward to seeing a plethora of (dry) swift reports in the coming days!
— Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator
c/o Nature Manitoba401-63 Albert StreetWinnipeg, MB R3B 1G4
Office: 204-943-9029
www.mbchimneyswift.com
