Chimney Swifts plus a Bonus Dauphin Summary!
This week we have our normal look back at Chimney Swift monitoring from the last week. Chimneys were monitored in La Broquerie, Brandon, Lower Fort Garry, Lockport and Selkirk. We also have a season update from the folks who monitor for Chimney Swifts in Dauphin!
We will start off in La Broquerie where Frank and Jacquie Machovec monitored the St Joachim Church chimneys. The smaller chimney had no action. The larger chimney ended the night with five swifts in the chimney. Two of the entrances (possibly by the same swifts or possibly by two different swifts) either had a missed approach or a tentative/ halting entry. So, this is either a young swift(s), or perhaps an adult swift that has come from elsewhere and is not used to entering this specific chimney. Frank and Jacquie noted that this time they saw no duo or trio flying.
In Brandon we have Louanne Reid, and Gillian and Gwynn Richard’s report from the Orange Block building’s north chimney from August 11th, 2021. They watched the chimney from 7:17 pm to 9:35 pm for a total of 138 minutes. There was a lot of activity at the chimney on this night. This includes 8 entries and 11 exits with a total of five swifts using the chimney during the monitoring period. However, only two swifts were down the chimney at the end of the monitoring period. Remember, there is a second chimney on the building that the swifts could be using! As the two chimneys were monitored on different nights (Aug 11th for the north chimney and August 10th for the west chimney) we can’t fully put together the swift story for this one week but we have seen both chimneys used by swifts all season long.
Glennis Lewis monitored the west Chimney on the Orange Block building on August 18th for 60 minutes during the roosting period. She had two swifts using the chimney. They had entered and exited the chimney a couple of times (2 entries and 3 exits) before they settled in for the night.
Next, we have an update from Lower Fort Garry. Gerald monitored the Fort on August 15th and August 22nd. On August 15th he was there for both some daytime monitoring and roosting hour monitoring. He had two swifts using the chimney with five entries and five exits. However, the night ended with only one swift in the chimney. On August 22nd Gerald watched the chimney for 50 minutes during the roosting period. He had one entry at 8:23 pm but noted that due to the cloud and rain, other swifts may have entered the chimney earlier. This is confirmation though that at least one swift is still using the chimney.
Now we will move onto the St Andrews Lock and Dam chimneys. We also have two reports for these chimneys this week on August 18th and August 22nd. First up is the south chimney. On August 18th there were two entries. The first entry at 8:23 pm put on quite the show. It was pretty likely a young swift as it made attempts to enter the chimney for over two minutes before it finally made it into the chimney at 8:23 pm. The second swift made it into the chimney at 8:50 pm with less drama. The same evening there was also use of the north chimney. There was an entry and an exit earlier in the evening. After 8:15 pm all the activity was entries. Two swifts entered at 8:16 pm, one at 8:39 pm, two more at 8:46 pm and one final swift entered at 8:47 pm. A second swift attempted entry at 8:47 pm but gave up and later entered the south chimney. The swift that did successfully enter at 8:47 pm did need to make a second attempt before it successfully entered into the chimney.
On August 21st the south chimney at the maintenance building had three entries all within a 15-minute period staring at 8:35 pm. There was no indication of awkward or multiple entry attempts this time. All the swifts were also adept at entering the north chimney as well. There were three entries, one at 8:43 pm and two at 8:44 pm.
In Selkirk Ray Peebles and Sibyl Finnson watched the St Merchants Hotel on August 13th and August 19th. On August 13th they observed one entry and two exits but noted that they “likely started observing too late” (observed 9:00-10:00 pm with sunset at 8:51 pm). On August 19th they really caught the swifts! They had nine entries, which is quite a bit higher than any other count this year at the site. It would seem that either some other local swifts joined the roost at the chimney or swifts who have started their migration stopped for the night.
Also in Selkirk we have reports from the Selkirk Mental Health Centre for August 16th. Robert and Donna Hempler watched the Infirmary building chimney from 8:00-9:00pm. They observed a number of entries and exits from 8:00-8:40 pm, and ended the monitoring period with two swifts in the chimney. There were up to five swifts seen in the air.
The same night Nia Massey and Linda Adie watched the yellow brick chimney from 8:10 -9:15 pm. They had two swifts using the chimney. Both swifts entered and exited the chimney once, before staying in the chimney once they had entered at 9:00 pm and 9:04 pm respectively.
The last chimney watched for swifts on August 16th is the stack replacement tower. Gerald watched this tower from 8:15-9:15. To start with, there were two entry/ exit cycles at 8:32/8:33 pm and 8:43/8:44 pm. Then two swifts entered at 8:58 pm and 8:59 pm before one exited at 9:02 pm. The night finished with three swifts in the chimney by 9:11 pm. The entry/exit cycle pattern and timing might be familiar – it is ringing any bells? To us it sounds like it could nesting with non-brooded young. Another option could be that young from an already fledged chimney (perhaps the Infirmary building chimney or yellow brick chimney) may be using this chimney as a base to practice flying in and out of. We are not 100% sure yet – mainly because it would be a very late attempt to raise young, but the daytime activity is a puzzle otherwise. We are certainly keeping an eye on this chimney to see what happens here!
Last but not least, we have a recap of the events this summer in Dauphin. The crew in Dauphin saves up all of the datasheets and sends them to me as a package. This way we get to follow the patterns of chimney use at the different sites across the summer!
We will start off with the Watson Arts Centre. It was watched twice in July. On July 7th Pat Start watched the chimney during the roosting hour. Despite seeing a maximum of six swifts in the air, there were no entries into the chimney. Ken Wainwright watched the Centre on July 24th. He saw no signs of swifts during the 45-minute daytime monitoring session. He did have a good view of a Merlin that landed in the spruce tree adjacent to the chimney mentioning, “From its perch any swift leaving the chimney would likely be an easy catch!”. With no swifts about this site, it was not monitored any further this year.
Next, we have the Dauphin Roost site (site #600). Jan and Ken Wainwright started off monitoring the chimney on June 23rd during the daytime. There were no birds entering the chimney but they observed three swifts flying overhead. Ken was back on July 7th for a bit of daytime monitoring that led into roosting hour monitoring. In the earlier part of the monitoring period a maximum of 10 swifts were swirling overhead, and starting just after sunset a total of six birds entered the chimney before it was too dark to see. Ken next visited the roost site on July 30th for the roosting hour. From 9:34 pm to 9:40 pm between 10-12 swifts were circling the chimney. Starting at 9:41 pm there were a total of 13 entries in 15 minutes. There were still six swifts using the roosting chimney when Ken came back on August 11th. The last monitoring session Ken did at the Dauphin roost site was on August 17th during the roosting hour. He had one entry at 9:12 pm before it was too dark to see. He had seen four swifts in the air and thought that the others may have headed to site 2021-8 (Hong Kong Café) which had four birds in the chimney that same night.
Our next site to summarize in Dauphin is the Scott’s Hardware building. We start out with daytime monitoring on June 23rd by Jan and Ken again. This time there was action at the chimney with an entry and an exit (4:42 pm and 4:48 pm respectively). Then there were two entries, one at 5:19 pm and the other at 5:39 pm just before Jan and Ken finished their monitoring session. A total of five birds were seen in the air with two in the chimney. The next visit was by Ken on July 7th during the day. There were two (possibly three) fast exchanges in and out of the chimney in an hour, which looked promising for feeding young. There were a total of seven swifts seen in the air. The feeding exchanges continued on July 28th when Ken monitored the site in the daytime. He had three sets of entries and exits in an hour. This time there were three swifts seen in the air.
Ken and Jan tried to monitor on August 4th from 8:00-9:00pm but it was difficult due to the smoke and low cloud. They did see two swifts enter the chimney at 8:35 pm and 8:47 pm but noted that they would try again the next day. Good thing they did because they activity picked back up again in the daytime of August 5th. This time Ken saw 4-5 entry/ exit cycles in an hour. Ken monitored on August 11th and had three entry/exit cycles in 60 minutes. The last monitoring session at the site was on August 17th during the day by Ken. Unfortunately, he saw no swifts, but he did see the Merlin again! The outcome of the nesting attempt at this chimney is unknown.
I’ve been saving the most exciting site in Dauphin for last – our new site at the Hong Kong Café. During their first monitoring session at the café Jan and Ken wrote, “We were advised that swifts had been observed and heard in this location so we stopped to check”. The first monitoring session was on July 23rd during the daytime. It started off with an exit at 12:57 pm, followed by two birds entering at 1:10 pm and 1:11pm, and then exiting at 1:14 pm and 1:15 pm. So definitely two swifts attending the nest and likely already feeding non-brooded young.
The next day Pat Start went out to monitor the site for 50 minutes during the daytime and saw no sign of the swifts!! Not to be put off Pat tried again during the roosting time on the same day and ended up seeing lots of activity with seven entries and seven exits in an hour. The swifts were back to feeding young. Pat also saw an additional two swifts flyover towards downtown. What had happened in the afternoon when they were not feeding? We are not sure. There has been challenging weather this summer, so perhaps they were trying to keep cool in the chimney or had to forage further afield to find bugs. We do know that a nest of young can survive with a feeding rate of once per hour, so we are glad that this nest was able to hang on.
Pat and Marilyn Muller were back at the Hong Kong Café chimney on July 28th for a bit of daytime monitoring leading into monitoring during the roosting hour. They observed seven classic feeding entries and exits (where the swifts only stay in the chimney for a minute or two). They knew that two swifts were using the chimney as two exited right at the beginning of the monitoring period, although at the end of the monitoring period only one swift was in the chimney. However, this very high feeding rate began to suggest that there was perhaps a third, adult, “helper swift” on site.
Marilyn and Pat were back on August 4th for another monitoring session and had three swifts drop into the chimney between 8:25 am and 8:40 am but also mentioned that the weather was poor. Pat was back on August 5th during the daytime and saw three visits to the chimney within 15 minutes. At this point the Dauphin crew were pretty sure they had two parents and a helper swift at the site, due to how often the chimney was visited, and how close together those visits were.
On August 11 Marilyn and Pat were back for an hour morning monitoring. They had an entry at 7:53 am followed by two exits, one right away and one at 8:09 am. At 8:09 am there was also another entrance, with an exit at 8:10 am. Then there was another entry, followed directly by an exit both at 8:11 am. It gets confusing! But overall they still thought the swifts were feeding young.
And the last data sheet for the Hong Kong Café! This ended on the note that we all hope for. Marilyn and Pat were watching the chimney on the morning of August 17th. They had seen no activity for over an hour when all of a sudden, they had an entrance. The note on the data sheet read “Baby wobbled into the chimney.” And at 9:02, “Baby trying to make the [chimney] hole”. At 9:02 am the two adults showed the young ones how it was done with quick dives into the chimney one after the other. Then at 9:10 am the second young one finally did make it down into the chimney. What a great way to end the Dauphin monitoring!
— Amanda Shave
