Fasten your seatbelts, we’ve got a big blog this week! Great to hear from so many of our volunteers out watching the Chimney Swifts. This is not even all of the monitoring records – I’ve saved some for next week as well.
First, we will have a few updates from our larger roost sites (the National Roost Monitoring Program – NRMP sites) in Winnipeg:
Linda Curtis watched the Moorgate Apartments, one of our roosting sites for NRMP nights on May 25th and 29th (NRMP night #1 and #2 respectively). She had three swifts down the chimney at the end of the night on May 25th, and another 2-3 swifts seen in the air overhead. If you remember from last week, I was monitoring just a block over from Linda and I had one entry but 3 more swifts in the air – I think I was seeing at least some of her swifts! Linda mentioned that she though some might have headed to the chimney on the Thunderbird Apartments due to their trajectory in the air. On May 29th she arrived later on-site but only saw one swift flying on the opposite side of Portage Avenue, with no swifts spotted entering the chimney she was watching. It is possible that the swifts may have headed down the chimney earlier as during the previous session the swifts were down the chimney almost right at sunset.
The River Manor Apartments (424 River Ave) was our big roost site last year and it has continued on this year as well. On May 25th (NRMP night #1) we had Barbara Barnett and Breanne Reinfort monitoring the “visible” chimney on the building and Wajed Shah monitoring the “invisible” chimney (named as it is hard to see from the ground). With their excellent counting skills and teamwork Barbara and Breanne tallied a total of 132 swifts going down the chimney in a 15-minute period. Interestingly up until 9:30 pm Breanne and Barbara didn’t actually see many swifts in the air (2-10 swifts seen), instead they mentioned that the swifts seem to arrive at the site in “waves”, with each new wave happening after the previous wave had gone down the chimney. Wajed had hunted down the best viewing spot for the “invisible” chimney – he had no swifts entering that chimney (which is handy as it is harder to watch), but did still get to see the whole spectacle!
On May 29th Barbara, Breanne and Wajed were all back at the River Manor Apartments for NRMP night #2. This site continued to be a spectacle! Despite a flat tire on the way to monitoring, Wajed made it in time, and luckily he did! Wajed was able to capture the entries of the swifts on two pieces of video, which allowed the trio to go through the video frame by frame and count the swifts. Within just 40 seconds of video 151-176 Chimney Swifts were counted going down the chimney!! The final number of swifts down the chimney is still being compiled but estimates are likely between 172-194 swifts!!! Take a look at Wajed’s video on YouTube.
Meanwhile, what a difference the weather made at the River Manor Apartments for NRMP night #3 on June 2nd! Our intrepid trio was back at the roost site, but only counted the entry of two swifts. It is not likely that all those swifts moved on to other sites within the three-day period. Much more likely is that the cold (9oC), cloudy and windy weather meant that the swifts headed down the chimney before the monitoring period had started.
On May 25th David Wiebe watched the Ecole Assiniboine School for NRMP night #1. This site was our large roost site in Winnipeg prior to last year (when it held few to no swifts). This year we had a roost back, albeit in smaller numbers. David counted 22 swifts in the air, with 21 swifts heading down the chimney for the night.
David was back for NRMP night #2 on May 29th from 9:00-10:00 PM. When he arrived, there were five swifts flying around. Between 9:38 PM and 9:56 PM 16 swifts entered the chimney and two swifts exited. As David put it “Maybe they didn’t like the company”! So there were only 14 swifts in the chimney at the end of the monitoring period.
Next on to the monitoring of our nesting sites in Winnipeg:
Pam Lucenkiw and Marilyn Bowles monitored at St Mary’s Road United Church in St Vital on May 25th. They unfortunately did not see or hear any swifts that evening. They went back for June 1st, but still had no confirmed Chimney Swifts. They did note that there were certainly more flying insects around this week!
Rob Parsons monitored at St Avila School on May 25th and he ended up with zero swifts as well.
722 Watt St saw the return of at least one swift, and our long-term monitor Garry Budyk. Garry only saw one swift go down the chimney on May 26th. The swift went down relatively early in the evening (9:03 PM, sunset 9:21 PM). However, Garry recorded some light precipitation and a few lightening flashes closer to sunset. It is possible a second swift may have been already down the chimney prior to Garry’s arrival, as this is usually a nesting site with two swifts (from past years).
Donna Milovitch continued to faithfully monitor her chimneys despite still hitting zeros in St James at the Carillon Apartments, Marner Apartments and the King’s Theatre building on the evening of May 27th.
David Wiebe watched a few of the St James neighbourhood-area sites on May 29th, prior to his watch at the Ecole Assiniboine School. From 8:00-9:00 PM he watched the old King’s Theatre building, the Carillon Apartments and the Marner Apartments. At 8:41 PM he saw his first swift, but similar to Donna’s experience in the area, David noted that the swift did not approach any of the chimneys.
Jon Benson watched the apartments at 634 Broadway. In the previous week he had seen Chimney Swifts using this site, but saw no signs of swifts during his May 31st monitoring session. It was very windy though, so not ideal Chimney Swift monitoring conditions.
Jon had also sent me an interesting report on May 29th. While working at an event at the Turtle Island Community Centre Jon was regularly seeing/ hearing Chimney Swifts overhead, and at one point saw up to 10 swifts. We have three sites near the Community Centre without monitors, so if any one would like to check them out, that would be fantastic!
Blaire Barta’s mystery at the Behavioral Health Foundation’s chimney continued on June 1st. Blaire sees the swifts fly around in the afternoon and early evening as she goes about her day, but the swifts don’t end up heading down the chimney she is watching.
Ron Bazin watched the Marion Hotel chimney on June 1st. He spotted a total of three swifts flying overhead for the evening, but had only one swift using the chimney. He had an entry at 8:38 PM, followed by a quick exit seven minutes later. The swift entered for the night 10 minutes after sunset. Ron also recorded two Common Nighthawk that he saw overhead at 8:50 PM. Like the Chimney Swift, Common Nighthawks are an aerial insectivore (bird who eats insects while in flight), so it is not too surprising that they would be feeding in the same area.
Jeope Wolfe continued monitoring at the Lothian Apartments in the Wolseley neighbourhood in Winnipeg on June 1st in the evening. He noted “Fewer sightings earlier on of swifts in the air, but more flybys and chattering closer to sunset…Two entered the chimney at 9:41 while the others continued to fly about until disappearing shortly after (last sighting at 9:44). A couple of nighthawks were also spotted this evening.”
Blair Reid watched the apartments at 261 Youville St during the roosting hour on June 1st. There were two swifts flying about, but no entries into the chimney.
Rudolf Koes was back in the North Kildonan neighbourhood on June 1st. First, he made a trip over to Chief Peguis Middle School from 8:30-8:43 PM. Here he saw three swifts overhead. This side-trip was made due to “bonus” swifts that Rudolf had seen last week. This was the closest, most likely site I could give him from our database that has had swifts in the past. However, we would still need to confirm with monitoring during the roosting period if these three swifts do indeed belong to this chimney. After that Rudolf headed to his normal monitoring sites. He watched the apartment at 1010 Brazier and the Curtis Hotel for the roosting period. Here he saw a maximum of nine Chimney Swifts in the air. He had one swift go down the chimney on the apartments at 9:40 PM and two swifts go down the hotel chimney at 9:38 PM. The remaining birds left the area.
Now off to the areas outside of Winnipeg with our trusty Chimney Swift monitors. First monitoring at our larger roost sites (the National Roost Monitoring Program – NRMP sites):
On May 29th (NRMP night #2) Gerald monitored at the St Merchants Hotel in Selkirk. He had one swift overhead, but no swifts entering the chimney.
For NRMP night #2 Frank and Jacquie Machovec headed to the St Joachim Church in La Broquerie. They had two swifts go down the small chimney and two swifts go down the larger chimney. However, like last week there were six swifts in the air, but only four down the chimneys at the end of the night. The mystery is ongoing!
Frank and Jaquie were back at the St Joachim Church on June 2nd (for NRMP night #3). This was the night of the terribly cold temperatures. Almost no one who was out monitoring saw any swifts! This certainly held true for Frank and Jacquie. Despite knowing there was an extremely high likelihood of swifts at the site, they saw not a sign of a swift. With a temperature of 8oC and cloudy at the start of monitoring, it is no wonder there were no swifts about. Based on our past experience, the Chimney Swifts probably headed down their respective chimneys earlier in the afternoon or evening.
Ron Bazin headed out to Otterburne for us on May 25th (NRMP night #1) to watch the two chimneys at Providence College. Six swifts were counted overhead, but based on chimney entries – there were at least 12 swifts on site. The chimney near the bell tower had two swifts that went down the chimney “swiftly” one after another right at sunset. The large chimney had six swifts enter across quite a time range starting at 8:33 PM and ending at 9:56 PM. The swifts in the skinny chimney were having a real party going into and out of the chimney almost constantly from 9:22 PM to 9:58 PM. Ron counted 14 exits and 10 entries over that period. At the end of all that action he had a total of four swifts in the skinny chimney.
On May 29th Ron was back at Providence College for the 2nd NRMP night. He had seven swifts seen in the air across all three chimneys. The chimney near the bell tower had four swifts enter for the evening, one just after sunset (9:23 PM) and the other three swifts approximately 10 minutes later. The large chimney also had two individuals enter the chimney around 10 minutes after sunset. The party from the previous monitoring session on May 25th at the skinny chimney was over on May 29th – only one swift entered the chimney (at 9:32 PM).
Ron returned to Providence College for the 3rd of the NRMP monitoring nights on June 2nd. Ron didn’t see any swift action at the large chimney or the chimney near the bell tower. However, Ron’s night was not a total bird-bust though, as he had a Chimney Swift exit out of the skinny chimney at 8:39 PM, before it headed back down almost right away at 8:40 PM. The appearance of the swifts out of the chimney confirmed that swifts were down the chimney at this site (due to the poor weather) before Ron even arrived to monitor. Ron got a bit more excitement later on that evening when he heard two Common Nighthawks overhead just before and after sunset.
The monitors in Dauphin had a rollercoaster ride of a night on the NRMP #2 evening (May 29th). I cannot explain it better than Ken Wainwright himself, so I will put his entry to me here “Decisions, what to do, it’s raining like “cats and dogs”, but it’s not roosting hour yet, oh well, I’ll give it a try, the truck needs the dust washed off it anyway!
I pull into the parking lot, the rain has let off, now to open and adjusting the window height when something moves?? What is a self-respecting jack rabbit doing hoping around in the rain and wet ground when it should be hiding in the lee of the wind snuggled into some dry leaves or grasses?
I raise the window a little higher, my clipboard is getting rain on it, something moves? Hurray, there were 4 swifts that came out of the fog and drizzle to buzz the truck! Oh wow, now there is a writhing ball, rolling east, then west and disappearing behind the maple tree only to roll back out again on the other side, what to do? I think back to my visit to the Narcisse Snake Dens with masses of snakes rolling in the grasses but not today, these are Chimney Swifts! The clouds are so low and the drizzle just heavy enough that there is nothing visible and then there’s 30 swifts flying around and then they’re gone again! Sunset comes, not that anything seemed to change that I could see but my watch says it’s time and here they come, 4 minutes later 31 swifts have gone down our roost chimney for the night.
I head over to our newest nesting chimney where I’m met by a smiling face from another volunteer who just happened to glance through the drizzle on her window to see 2 swifts go down and out of the weather for the night, it’s starting!”
When the Dauphin folks went to watch the big roost site the next night (June 2nd, the 3rd NRMP night), it was unfortunately the day with the terrible weather across Manitoba. Ken sums up the night “Well, the count at the Dauphin roost tonight was ZERO!! I figure it must have been too cold, right now +8oC, maybe they were out earlier but there was cloud and drizzle and now its cleared right off with FROST warnings!! Is it June already?”
As Jan Wainwright’s keen eyes counted approximately 70 swifts enter the roost site on June 1st (see the entry on the nesting chimney in the next section), but had no swifts at the roost site on June 2nd, the Dauphin folks headed back to the roosting chimney on June 3rd. Ken Wainwright notes “For along time we didn’t see anything but it was clear, sunny and +14oC so we still had hope. We finally heard them before seeing them but then they were flying around in 2’s and 3’s. Sunset was listed at 9:48 PM still without any interest in the chimney but there seemed to be more flying around. Finally, at 10:09 the first three went down and then there were birds all around and 24 went down followed by a few more each minute till 10:18 for a total count in the chimney being 44”.
And last, but certainly not least, we fly in to visit our volunteers that monitor nesting chimneys outside of Winnipeg:
Bonnie Chartier and Tim Verbiswski watched the St Andrews Lock and Dam Maintenance Compound in Lockport on May 25th. They saw both chimneys in use by the swifts, with the south chimney hosting one swift that entered at 9:34 PM and the north chimney hosting two swifts that entered at the same time as the swift in the south chimney!
June 1st had Donna Milovitch back in Lac du Bonnet at Casey’s Inn. Unfortunately, still no swifts around!
With the evening of Saturday, May 28th being so nice, I decided to head out to watch the two chimneys on the St Andrews Lock and Dam Maintenance Compound as well. There were five swifts in the air, although I mostly saw 3-4 circling. There were “V” courtship displays a couple of times, which was promising. A third swift would follow closely when this happened and get chased off by the other two. First, I had two swifts down the south chimney and three down the north chimney just after sunset. There was a bit of a commotion in the north chimney a couple of minutes later and all three swifts left at once and proceeded to fly around for another 15 minutes or so, until two of the three went back down the north chimney and the other swift went down the south chimney instead. Ended with two down the north chimney and three down the south chimney. Everyone settled back in the chimneys by 9:45 PM. My speculation on the drama is that perhaps the “third wheel” swift was not welcome in the north chimney and got kicked out.
Gerald Machnee watched the chimney at the Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site’s Fur Loft building on May 28th for the roosting period. He had one entry at 9:11 PM, followed by an exit a couple minutes later at 9:15 PM before activity stopped for the evening. So no swifts were actually seen spending the night in the chimney. Hopefully the one checking it out will decide it is a good place to spend the night (or nest) in the future!
Gerald was also back with the rest of the Selkirk Birders crew in Selkirk! Starting on May 11th Gerald watched the stack replacement tower at Selkirk Mental Health Centre (SMHC). He saw one swift circle overhead before it “vanished”.
A week later Gerald went to check out the SMHC again, but this time the chimney on the old Infirmary building. He also saw some Chimney Swift action here with one or two swifts either diving into or past the chimney at 9:00 PM. He thought it looked more like they dove past the chimney but it was hard to tell. The usual monitoring vantage point was blocked as the building and parking lot were being used to film a movie (inside the building)! I think that is a first for issues encountered by MCSI monitors!
With the filming wrapped up Robert Hempler was able to move back into the prime Chimney Swift monitoring location when he watched the old infirmary chimney on May 25th. He recorded seven swifts flying overhead in the earlier part of the evening, eventually noting two swifts down the chimney he was watching about 20 minutes after sunset.
Also on May 25th Nia Massey and Linda Adie watched the stack replacement tower and the yellow brick chimney. Like Robert, they counted up to seven swifts in the air, even after sunset. They had two entries, followed by one exit in the yellow brick chimney (so ending up with one swift in the chimney). There was one swift seen using the stack replacement tower.
Now moving to May 29th at the SMHC the monitors were out in full force once again. Nia and Linda watched the yellow brick chimney and the stack replacement tower. They had one swift enter the stack replacement tower at 9:00 PM, one enter at 9:10 PM, and two swifts enter the tower at 9:42 PM. At the yellow brick chimney, they had only one swift enter at 9:03 PM. Robert was also onsite, but watching the old infirmary chimney. He had two swifts exit at 9:00 PM, before two swifts came back to enter the chimney for the evening at 9:30 PM.
On June 2nd, myself and two provincial STEP students, Aynsley Woods and Aditya Ghandi all headed out to SMHC to watch the various Chimney Swift Towers. Like most others who watched on this night though, we ended up seeing zero swifts in the air.
One June 1st at the St Francois Xavier Roman Catholic Church Mike and Michèle Tumber had a bit of action as well. There were two swifts in the air shortly after they arrived on site, and had one aborted entry attempt. After a brief intermission appearance by two Common Nighthawks, the swifts went down the chimney at 9:16 PM and 9:22 PM. All was quiet after that.
The monitors in Dauphin have both a roosting chimney that gets watched on NRMP nights (due to the larger number of swifts) as well as several nesting chimneys. On June 1st Jan and Ken Wainwright watched the Old Scott’s Hardware building and Marilyn Muller and Pat Start watched the Watson Arts Centre. Both were occupied! This makes all four Dauphin chimneys occupied this year. It will certainly keep the Dauphin folks busy! Marilyn and Pat had one swift enter the chimney for the evening at 9:17 PM. Ken and Jan had three swifts enter their chimney for the evening, one individual at 8:51 PM and two individuals at 9:30 PM. While watching the Old Scott’s Hardware building, Jan Wainwright used her keen eyesight to look beyond the nesting chimney to the roost chimney, where she estimated 70 swifts heading down there that night!
Next, we’ve got a few sightings from St Jean Baptiste. Long time volunteer Luc Blanchette has been joined this year by Nelson Chubby, which is great as both known Chimney Swifts sites can be covered! When Nelson watched the Ecole Regional St Jean-Baptiste on May 25th there were no swifts to be seen.
The next person out was Luc on May 31st at the St Jean Baptiste Church. This time swifts were spotted with two heading down the chimney (one at 8:59 PM and one oat 9:01 PM). However, after those swifts went down the chimney, there were still three in the air that never went down the chimney Luc was watching…perhaps the three extra swifts had arrived sometime after May 25th and were using the chimney at Nelson’s site?
We received an answer to that question on June 1st, when both Nelson and Luc were monitoring their sites on the same night! Luc recorded a total of four swifts flying around and calling (including harassing a Merlin). At 9:25 PM two swifts went down his chimney, while two more continued to fly around and call. While over at Nelson’s site things were much quieter, until two swifts headed down his chimney! So all accounted for!
Gordon Ogilvie has also done some monitoring in Portage la Prairie at the Rufus Prince building. On May 25th he noted two swifts entering the south chimney 20-30 minutes after sunset. He was back on June 2nd (the cold night) but recorded no swifts (as we’ve come to expect now!).
In Brandon we had our whole complement of volunteers out on June 1st to monitor. Louanne Reid and Gillian Richards watched the north chimney on the Orange Block building and had one “quiet, sudden entry” at 9:38 PM. Other bird sightings included five Common Nighthawks, two Common Grackles, two Rock Pigeons, and various House Sparrows. The other chimney on the Orange Block had Glennis Lewis and Hannah Shields as monitors. They had only one swift (the same bird that headed down the north chimney) but also recorded other birds on their side of the building including Common Nighthawks, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Rock Pigeons, House Sparrows and American Crows.
David Raitt was able to check out one of our priority chimneys in The Pas at the VIA Rail station on May 28th from 9:45 – 11:00 PM. There were no signs of Chimney Swifts there, unfortunately.
— Amanda Shave
