We have confirmed nesting at Assiniboine Park Zoo’s artificial chimney/ tower in 2020. Laura and Ashleigh (Zoo Staff) had a quick peek up the chimney this week, and saw eggshell fragments on the ground, and a nest higher up on the wall. They also retrieved a trail camera that caught an image of a nesting swift on May 23rd, 2020.
On August 5th in Portage la Prairie, Gord watched the Trinity Church (south chimney) during the roosting hour. He had one exit at 8:50pm followed closely by one entry (8:52pm), with the second swift entering the chimney at 9:24pm.
Also on August 5th, Frank and Jacquie visited the Providence College in Otterburne to watch the two chimneys for a roosting session. Frank writes “For the first hour of our visit, we saw no swifts in the area whatsoever. Only the skinny chimney (site 552) was used this evening, and we had a procession of nine single entries after sunset. No exits took place.”
On August 4th Blair visited 340 Provancher Blvd in the evening (he had previously visited during the day and seen no swifts). There were also no swifts roosting in this chimney in the evening. On august 5th he visited 188 St Mary’s during the day for an hour, and came back later in the evening. Unfortunately, most of the activity at this chimney during both time periods was Rock Pigeons, although he did see five swifts overhead during the day and one swift in the evening that circled around to check out the chimney, but did not enter. At 690 St Joseph on August 6th during the roosting hour Blair again had a non-Chimney Swift visitor to the chimney (a crow). However, this time after three swifts flew over, he observed two entering the chimney for the night.
On August 7th Gerald watched the yellow brick chimney at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre for 15 minutes in the afternoon. He caught one entry and one exit, while seeing three swifts flying above. On the same day, he also watched the St Andrew’s Lock and Dam Maintenance Compound chimneys. Site 2018-16.1 had two swifts enter during the roosting period watch, while site 2018-16.2 had no activity (possibly abandoned? Gerald has said he will go out again to watch further).
Garry did a monitoring session last week at the 722 Watt St chimney on the evening of August 6th. He was Hoping for fledglings, but instead observed the typical fast entry/exit pattern of adults feeding nestlings. However, as he was out for a morning walk on August 9th Garry caught site of two moulting adult swifts, and two juvenile swifts (no moulting), along with 3 other swifts feeding less than 200m from the chimney on Watt St that he watches. It always pays to have your eyes on the sky!
Margaret and Millie in Brandon continued to watch the Orange Block chimney on August 9th, in hopes of seeing signs of fledglings. It was not to be this week – with behavior of the swifts still suggesting that they are feeding nestlings – but the feeding rate suggests the young are getting plenty of food to get them on their way.
Frank and Jacquie spent the evening of August 10th watching the chimneys at the St Joachim Church in La Broquerie. Earlier in the evening there were some entries and exits in the large chimney, but once 9:00pm hit, there were exclusively entries for a total of 13 swifts in the large chimney and two swifts in the smaller chimney at the end of the monitoring period.
Last week (August 5th) in Dauphin, Ken and Co. saw around 50 swifts enter into the area’s roosting chimney for the night – noticeably more than the local summertime cohort of birds. On August 10th Ken writes “Well, the “visiting kin-folk” to the Dauphin roost have now headed south. We’ve had a really strong wind the last few days and I figured it would have been advantageous for the swifts to start their southerly journey and it appears that I was correct.” There were still around 19 birds using the chimney, including swifts that persevered past some pesky chimney roosting pigeons to be able to enter and exit.
On August 11, I joined Gerald at Lower Fort Garry to watch the active chimney there for a roosting session. We were trying to determine if the nestlings had fledged yet. However, at the end of the night only two swifts went down the chimney – likely the adult swifts, as earlier in the evening they were doing characteristic feeding entries and exits.
Paul watched the Chimney Swifts at a chimney in Darlingford on August 11th and saw one entry and exit from the building’s chimney. This is our first observation this year at this location and as Paul said “it is nice to know it is still being used”!
Yesterday Barb watched the St Adolphe Church chimney. She observed no entries or exits, but did see four swifts (likely family) feeding overhead. She said “The fledglings (2) have been out of the chimney since Aug. 2-3. They have now got flying under control and are strong enough to be on the wing for a full daytime shift. Once daytime activity in the area stops, it will be time to change to roosting hour sessions to see how migration plays out…we only have a short stretch now to enjoy our swifts!”
Blair watched the chimneys at 690 St. Joseph and 261 Youville St. He watched St. Joseph on August 12th and had two swifts enter the chimney during the evening monitoring period. In previous weeks the Youville St. chimney had two swifts entering the chimney and had the entry/exits timing indicative of feeding nestlings, however, this time (August 10th) Blair saw four swifts going down the chimney at the end of the night – indicating that the chimney may have two fledglings using it as well!
We are definitely moving towards the end of the period where we get to enjoy our Chimney Swift neighbours, however, it is very exciting to see and hear about the young swifts start to fledge!
–Amanda Shave
