It’s official – the swifts have headed south and the 2024 Chimney Swift monitoring season has officially come to an end. What a successful season it was! Thank you SO MUCH to our wonderful and dedicated team of volunteers. We will share the monitoring summary in a future blog post once we’ve compiled all the data. On that note, please remember to send in any remaining datasheets!
Now for the final recap of the year:
St Adolphe
Barb did a roost hour watch of the Church on Sept 1 and while she saw 1 lone swallow and a group of Common Nighthawks foraging overhead, she did not see any swifts.
SMHC
Nia and Linda watched the Yellow Brick chimney and T04 on August 29 during the roosting hour and saw no swifts.
Winona watched T01 on August 30 from 7:45pm-8:25pm and saw 1 entry at 8:15pm, 1 exit at 8:16pm, 1 entry at 8:21pm and 1 entry at 8:22pm (2 swifts roosting in the chimney).
Gerald watched T01 on September 3 from 7:50pm-8:00pm and did not see any swifts in the area.
Lower Fort Garry
If you’ve been keeping up with the blog, you’ll know that the Fur Loft had a late nesting attempt and that the site finally fledged last week. Gerald watched the Fur Loft on Sept 1 from 7:27-8:34pm and saw 1 exit at 7:35pm, 1 entry at 7:45pm, 3 entries at 8:00pm, 1 entry at 8:03pm, 1 exit at 8:07pm and 1 entry at 8:18pm (5 swifts roosting in the chimney).
On September 3, Gerald watched the Fur Loft for 5 minutes and saw 2 entries at 8:17pm.
Gerald returned on Sept 4 to check if the swifts were still there. There were no swifts to be seen, confirming that the adults and young of the year have officially departed!
That wraps up our final monitoring update of the year. We will be back soon with a season summary to share.
Take care,
Marissa
