Our final official monitoring night was a bit of a turgid affair for many, a fair few sites were not watched in favour of avoiding the possibility of being struck by lightning. But hey, some folk managed to get out where the weather was better, and some folk also got out on other days. Here is our latest swift monitoring update.
First, to business though. This Wednesday is the first of our ‘Wednesday Night Swift Night’ of the summer. To mark this, we are encouraging all monitors in and around Winnipeg to turn up at Assiniboine School to watch the large roost. We may even recruit a few folk to look at the surrounding chimneys in the area before descending on the school for the main event. We will be there from 8:30, so please come along and meet us!
We cannot avoid this first piece of news any longer. On Friday, Laura from the Assiniboine Park Zoo sent us this message:
‘Good news! Our students were checking out the Zoo chimney this afternoon to see if the data loggers were still recording, and saw 2 swifts exit the chimney! I sent them out to continue observing for ~ 1 hour, and they did not see any more entrances or exits.’
This is the first ever use of an artificial chimney in Manitoba, a very significant moment, and huge credit must go to a number of people, not least Nicole at Manitoba Sustainable Development for making this happen.
The story didn’t end there. This needed following up. Avoiding the downpours on Saturday, Tim popped up mid-morning and watched for an hour. Here are the results:
https://youtu.be/yvs2t9nysWs
Nicole and Cain tried later in the day, but alas they teased, weaved and didn’t enter. Not to worry, Barb and Rob went on Sunday and sent the following:
‘Rob and I landed at our observation site ~4:50 PM today (Sun. June 9) – facing north toward the tower, with chairs set up on the broad sidewalk due east of Gate E 10. We started officially at 4:54 PM and saw 2-3 swifts feeding over the tower many times.
Patience was rewarded with observing a meteoric dive entry at 5:50:31 PM – the swift dove in on an angle from an easterly approach. This was a confident, experienced bird using the site.
Kamikaze Pete left the tower at 6:01:21 PM with a low, quick rim-blip exit to the west; duration in the chimney ~11 minutes.
So the site has had at least three consecutive days of use. It looks like the swifts are using the tower as a nest site.’
Amazing news for 2019!
And the news keeps coming.
In 2018, St Vital and St Boniface appeared relatively quiet for swifts. Not so in 2019! We may just be fortunate that Blair has come along as a volunteer. But there seems to be something in the air around here. Here is another new site, the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre on Provencher, also known as the home of Nature Manitoba Discovery evenings:‘It was a dark and stormy evening, when I arrived to watch the chimney at 340 Provencher – Centre Culturel Franco Manitoba. It was so dark I expected I could have missed all entries. At 9 PM, the sky had cleared significantly and at 9:02, two Chimney Swifts flew by coming from the North and going South.At 9:04 and then 9:07, a CHSW, exited the chimney. They returned and entered the chimney at 9:16 and 9:18 PM. Another pair (two swifts) in this chimney.’
Blair followed up with a follow-up at an old favourite, Springs Christian Academy:
‘I was able to check out the small chimney at the north end of 261 Youville recently. On June 9, I checked the chimney but not from a good vantage point. I caught one CHSW dropping in the chimney at 9:21, with no more activity. So, I went out for a short period on June 10th to confirm if I missed a second entry.On June 10, I saw two shifts circle the building and then both entered at the same minute 16 minutes later. A fourth chimney with two chimney swifts in St. Boniface.’
Tim also got in on the act in St Vital, this time from the comfort of his own neighbourhood in Riverview – a bit of a home boy apparently! On the 6th, he spotted two swifts sweeping around the Riverside Billiard’s on St Mary’s, a site which has sat on the database for 13 years, with no record of a swift entering. Well, no more! Later that afternoon, while taking his sick child out on a tricycle ride, Tim spotted the same pair of swifts over the chimney through his binoculars. He watched the swifts from the far side of the red River, eventually seeing one drop into the chimney.
The success in that area is in stark contrast to Fort Garry, where volunteers have really struggled to find any swifts. The folks at the Old Grace Housing Coop, on this occasion, Debbie and Carl were left empty handed, zero swifts spotted (although birds were seen in the air earlier in the week).
On the 6th, Justin and his family decided to watch the Assiniboine School and were rewarded by the following:‘I did note that 3 swifts went in around 9:27 and the rest (between 65-70) went in between 9:49-9:51.The Friday night monitoring was certainly patchy this week. Thunderclouds gathered over Winnipeg, lightning flashed, and some very sensible folk decided not to chance it outside. Certainly Gerald in Selkirk tried:
‘I did a short survey yesterday, June 7. I spent 10 minutes at Lower Fort Garry. There were no Swifts or Swallows flying.
I was at the large stack at the SMHC from 9:20 to 10:00 PM. Zero Swifts
sighted. The rain had passed through Selkirk by about 9-9:15 PM. I expect that the Swifts had entered the chimneys very early.’
Linda tried the Moorgate, covering for Frank and Jacquie who were in Churchill (not sure why, there’s no swifts in Churchill). Here is her report:
‘We had a severe weather watch but fortunately was almost finished passing through just as I was leaving home. We had had high winds and high temps 36C throughout the day and then came the calm before the storm! Thankfully it missed our end of town but not sure how others fared. Anyway, I did see at least 2 Chimney Swifts, but not entering or leaving. Hope this doesn’t give me a failing grade! LOL’.
On Corydon, Leah and Donald were left disappointed, not a single swift, and the only some lightning for company.
Ken, Jan, Pat and Marilyn in Dauphin reported:
‘The final count night for Dauphin went quit well, despite what the Watson Art Centre observers said:
Lots of chatter we could often hear them but not see them. Flew mostly in groups of 2 or 3 but did see a group of 4 once in a while and one group of 6. We had one entry at 9:09 but non after that time. Did not witness any exits.
When they were packing up they think a 2nd swift went down their chimney which is shielded somewhat by a large spruce. The old Scott’s Hardware chimney had 2 swifts go down and the roost chimney had several exit and entries and got a final count of 8. It would seem the migrants have headed off but it is possible all 3 chimneys have birds setting up nests. Now to have a short break and then do some impromptu counts over the next few weeks to few months.’
Rhonda in Carman also managed to get out:‘Last night was a hot and steamy night in Carman. Temperature was still around 30 degrees into the evening. The thunderstorms had missed Carman entirely but gifted us with spectacular clouds tinted with the an ever-changing kaleidoscope of the colours of the sunset…pinks, purples and oranges. What a gorgeous backdrop for watching the swifts. And, I’m sure the swifts were loving it, too. At one point, I tracked 9 swifts careening around the Town Hall and the rental house. One swift entered the rental house early, around 8:30 and stayed put. I moved down the street to the Town Hall and watched another 4 swifts enter singularly at staggered intervals. No exits from the chimney. I packed it in just before 10 pm with 2 swifts left circling close to the chimney at the Town Hall. That accounted for 7 of the 9 that I saw at once. Where do the others go? It’s the mystery of the disappearing swifts. I sure do love a good mystery.’
Michele and Mike had more luck as well:
‘I didn’t think that monitoring would be possible this evening but the weather system blew by in time for us to arrive at the church just a few minutes late. The air was dead calm at first and the temperature had dropped an astonishing 12C in the past hour. This seemed to have quite an effect on our pair of swifts with very little activity to report other than the last 2 entries a bit earlier than usual. On another note, this was the first time this year seeing dragonflies…there were quite a few flying around above us this evening.’
In La Salle, Irene and Scott observed at least 10 swifts in the air, although only 2 came down to roost in the church. Mysterious swifts again…
Colleen and Mark had a great night in Otterburne, 4 swifts in one chimney and one in the other. This lot do appear to be settling down now!
David had a good evening in La Broquerie:
‘Another interesting night of observation and in spite of the strong wind the birds seemed to fly ‘normally’ as if there was no wind. Straight down the chimneys as usual.At 9.37, immediately after the last one went down the small chimney there were 4 birds in the air in a quick fly through. I never saw any more entries after the 9.37 one and by 9.55 it was getting too dark with numerous lightning flashes and black clouds so I quit about 5 minutes early. I saw no exits, so from the above there were 5 birds in each chimney with 4 more unaccounted for.’
In Brandon, Margaret and Millie watched the usual spot, and were rewarded with 4 flying swifts. Unfortunately they disappeared and did not roost in the usual chimney. Never fear though, on Sunday they returned, and the pair settled for the night in the Orange Block once again. There seems to be a second pair in town, so Brandon folks, keep a lookout for more swifts!
Barb did her St Adolphe recce on Saturday morning:
‘As the sky was darkened to end-of-roosting-hour conditions and lightning strikes were flashing, an outing for Friday night swift watching was cancelled. Even with my compulsive-obsessive swift disorder, I draw the line at electrocution.So Saturday morning, off I went to St Adolphe to check on the local flock. A major electrical storm blew the sky apart ~ 0530 H and drenched the area with much needed rain. It is always a concern though that nests get washed off the wall of the chimney by heavy deluges.As I parked the car near the Main St site, a swift was low overhead and I watched it fly directly to a dead tree and bang – the dead branch end was hit – the swift circled and dropped into the chimney, with it’s partner nearby. All seemed well.Shortly after the Main St entry, a pair of swifts made entries into the Brodeur Bros. chimney after fluttery alignment. Yes, all was very good.A trio of birds raced down toward Club Amical. Several swifts were swirling around the Church. All around, the local Chimney Swifts seemed active and on task for nesting.’
Finally, we end in Souris and our Sunday evening swift watch. 21 people from as far away as Darlingford and Brandon joined a group of locals from the town for a roost watch with MCSI Coordinator, Tim Poole. A minimum of 8, possibly up to 10 swifts roosted in the church, 5 in the Whistling Donkey Pub, 3 in the nesting chimney at Kowalchuk’s, one in the brilliantly named ‘ducktaped chimney’, and finally there seems to be a nesting attempt in the Specialty Shop. Big thanks to Terry,Glennis and Gillian for the extra watching.
This is the end of the ‘official’ roost monitoring nights. but the swifts do not stop, we do not stop, and we are encouraging as many of you as possible to keep the momentum going throughout this summer. more suggestions will follow over the coming weeks of things you can do to help.
—Tim Poole
