Hello all! This week we are reporting on volunteers who conducted monitoring sessions last week (or earlier). It has been a busy time in volunteers getting their monitoring sheets to me, so we have quite a bit to cover this blog. Before we get started with last week, I would like to give a quick update on where the nesting swifts you monitor may be at. As you may know, Barb Stewart watches nesting chimneys in St Adolphe very carefully, and is able to estimate the age of the chicks in successful nests there as a rough road mark for the possible timing for other sites in Manitoba. On Tuesday the chicks in the Main St nest chimney were around 21 days old. Between 19-21 days old is when the chicks can start leaving the nest itself and start clinging (and climbing) the chimney walls. If you are a homeowner with chicks in your chimney, you may notice at this time that they get much louder and/or you hear the sound differently as the chicks may be closer (or further) from your fireplace as they move about.
And now onto the reports! We had volunteers monitoring in Dauphin, Carman, Brandon, Portage la Prairie, Lockport, Lower Fort Garry, Selkirk and Winnipeg last week.
A NEW SITE in Dauphin was identified last Friday! You think you know where your neighbourhood swifts are? Think again! The swift is a mysterious bird and a volunteer from Dauphin was able to tip Ken Wainwright off that swifts were using the Hong Kong Café chimney. Ken and Jan went down to take a look and said, “Almost immediately we had a swift exit the chimney. About 12 minutes later first one, then a second swift returned to go down the chimney and within about two minutes they both exited just as fast. It would appear they are very actively feeding young in this chimney”.
Frank and Jacquie Machovec monitored at the Carman Memorial Hall on July 21st. They had three entries for the night. The first was earlier at 8:43 PM, followed by two entries at 9:17 PM. They also noted “No group flying or vocalizations were noted during the monitoring period, unlike in past visits”.
Last week we had the monitoring report on July 14th for the west chimney on the Orange Block building in Brandon from Glennis Louis, and this week we have the corresponding report for the north chimney on the same building from Louanne Reid (along with Kathryn Hyndman and Gillian Richards). Louanne saw three Chimney Swift entries, one at 8:47 PM, one at 9:18 PM and one at 9:30 PM. I had a good chuckle at one of her report comments (8:43 PM – a fly…too many legs!). I have had this same thought earlier this year when I poorly chose a monitoring spot that had spiders nearby!
Louanne, Gillian and Gwynn were back at the Orange Block building north chimney on June 21st, 2021 for a 100-minute monitoring session. This time they had one exit at 8:59 PM (so they would have started the session with a swift in the chimney) and an entry at 9:46 PM. Louanne had heard a mystery squawking/ begging bird during the beginning of her monitoring period when she was there alone. Once Gillian and Gwynn showed up with binoculars, they were able to figure out it was a Peregrine Falcon making the noises – perhaps why there was less Chimney Swift activity around the chimney this time? Ariel noticed a similar lack of Chimney Swift activity around a site near the Legislative Building in Winnipeg that also had a Peregrin around last week.
At the same time Glennis was monitoring the Orange Block west chimney again. She had solid string of entries and exits from two swifts from 9:19 PM almost every couple of minutes until 9:46 PM when both birds were in the chimney for the rest of her monitoring period. She ended up with four entries and two exits that evening.
Cal Cuthbert and William Rideout watched the Trinity Church large chimney in Portage la Prairie for 45 minutes starting at 9 AM on June 23rd. They had two swifts go down the chimney with a flyover afterwards by one more swift.
Almost a month later Gordon Ogilvie and Janice Madill watched the large chimney on the Trinity Church for the roosting hour and had two entries, one at 9:35 PM and the other at 9:42 PM.
Gerald Machnee watched the southeast building chimney at Lower Fort Garry on July 20th for a 90 minute period that included daytime monitoring and part of the roosting hour. He had an entry, followed by an exit at 8:30 PM and 8:31 PM respectively, and another entry at 9:11 PM and no more action by the time he ended his monitoring session at 9:40 PM.
At the St Andrews Lock and Dam Maintenance Compound on July 21st, 2021 Winona Hook and Tim Verbiwski saw quite a bit of activity with entries and exits into the chimney. At the north chimney they started the monitoring period with two exits, followed by three entries over about 30 minutes. Then an exit, and entry and another exit within two minutes. From 9:00 PM onward they saw four more entries and one exit – leaving them with five birds in the chimney at the end of the monitoring period. At the south chimney they have an entry followed by an exit at 8:30 PM with two swifts then entering the chimney for the night, one at 8:34 PM and the other 50 minutes later.
In Selkirk Ray Peebles and Sybil Finnson monitored from 9:00-10:00PM at 367 Main St on July 15th. No swift activity was seen.
The rest of the Selkirk group was also monitoring on July 21st at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre and in town. Gerald Machnee and Robert Hempler watched the Big Stack replacement tower (2021-T04), the east tower (2021-T02), the west tower (2021-T01), the infirmary attached tower (2021-T03) and the infirmary chimney (2014-2). See last week’s blog for a map of the site!
There were no entries or exits in the east, west or stack replacement towers – just 1-2 swifts in the air around 9:00 PM. The infirmary attached tower had a quick entry, followed by an exit, followed by an entry all at 9:30 PM, and then a last exit at 9:45 PM – so no one actually spent the night there. There was the usual feeding pattern happening at the infirmary chimney, with many entries and exits happening from 8:26- 9:25 PM. The last entry was a 9:25 PM.
Nia Massey and Linda Adie were watching the Yellow Brick chimney at the Mental Health Centre. They also had entries and exits every 5-10 minutes – which is unusual for this chimney. There was no daytime action here previously to suggest nesting use (or even consistent roosting use). The chimney ended up with two swifts at the end of the monitoring period. Hopefully time will tell us what is going on here!
Moving on now to Winnipeg…
From earlier in the year (June 8th) James Chliboyko watched the 424 River Ave roost in the Osborne Village. He was there from 9:30-10:00 PM but counted all the 100 entries between 9:30 and 10:00 PM. He noted it was hard to get a count – makes total sense!
On June 9th Ward and Marlene Waldron also observed the roost at 424 River Ave for just over an hour. They counted 193 swifts entering the roost. Ward and Marlene also spent just over an hour around sunset watching the two Arundel Apartment buildings on June 12th. They observed one bird go down the chimney at 780 Elizabeth St and two birds head down the chimney at 790 Elizabeth St.
For an incidental report, I had a phone call from Judy Anderson – who had been walking near Augustine United Church near sunset on July 11th, and estimate 35 Chimney Swifts flying to and fro, but said there easily could have been 3-4 times that amount. Not surprisingly she decided to hang out and watch them for a while! It is likely she was seeing some of the swifts from the 424 River Avenue roost.
While not actually monitoring Tim Poole caught an entry at 277 River (Royal Oak Apartments) on July 18th while getting into his vehicle! He had previously noted around six swifts flying over the area.
On July 18-20th Phil and Barbara Barnett did a great blitz of daytime monitoring at most of our known Chimney Swift sites in the Osborne Village area. On the morning of July 18th Barbara watched the Royal Oak Apartments for an hour. At 9:16 AM and 9:18 AM she caught two entries, followed by two exits at 9:26 AM. Then a surprise third exit at 9:42 AM! After that two swifts went down the chimney close together again (9:51 AM and 9:52 AM) and then left at the same time again (9:55 AM). At 9:56 AM there were three swifts overhead, which matches with the number of swifts she saw using the chimney. Were the pair of swifts practicing, hoping that synchronized chimney entries/ exits would be included in this year’s summer Olympics?! Just kidding, but it looks like there is a feeding pattern happening, perhaps with a helper swift on site.
On July 19th Phil watched the Biltmore Apartments and Barbara watched the Rosemount Apartments (both on River Avenue) during the morning for an hour. Neither spotted any swifts using the chimneys but Barbara had between 4-12 swifts overhead and Phil had between 1-3 swifts overhead.
To wrap up their blitz on the morning of July 20th Phil watched 105 Clarke St and Barbara watched 141 River Ave (west chimney). Phil saw two swifts flying west, but no chimney use. Barbara had an entry at 9:45 AM and an entry at 9:56 AM. She also had a swift fly out briefly at 9:58 AM which circled briefly but headed right back down the chimney.
On July 21st Tim visited the chimney on the Scarsdale Apartments (downtown Winnipeg) from 8:40- 9:26 PM and saw further behavior that looked like nesting was happening (which Ariel also observed last week). He assumed there was a swift in the chimney when he arrived, as his first sighting was an entry, followed by two exits. Two swifts were down the chimney when he left. He also took a quick pit stop at the 424 River roost on his way home and counted only 13 swifts there – but also mentioned that he was there a little later than ideal and only for a short time.
I conducted a monitoring session at Chief Peguis School in Winnipeg on July 21st. It was an early night for the swifts – I arrived during the “daytime” monitoring period (i.e. the 30 minutes before the roosting period started) to see if there was any evidence of nesting. However, instead two swifts went down the chimney early at 8:47 PM for the night. Luckily, I had a bit more entertainment for the night when five more swifts flew overhead before heading off to the south (where there are other known Chimney Swift chimneys).
On July 23rd Blair Reid monitoring Nelson McIntyre Colligate during the daytime for 90 minutes and saw no Chimney Swift action. As he thought this meant that the swifts could be using the site for roosting only, he also went back the next night during roost monitoring time, but once again, no swifts showed up.
Thank you to all the volunteers for hanging in their for us during the week of hot and smoky weather! Stay safe with your Chimney Swift monitoring and have a great August long weekend!
- Amanda Shave
