What a wonderful group of volunteers! We are so close now to the end of 2018 as far as swift watching goes, yet still you guys keep going! There are still some swifts around, so Wednesday this week, may well be our last night out. For some, it’s over already, they have recorded zeros, for others, maybe they still want to check.
Here is a reflection of some of the excellent monitoring we have seen since last we reported. It’s been a couple of weeks, so rather than report everything, we will give a flavour of all that has happened (please note that this is a summary, some of these volunteers have exceeded the number of visits described).
Brandon
Margaret and Millie reported a fledging date of August 14th, with 2 young over the chimney! On August 18th they reported that:
‘Looks like we do have two fledglings. Lots of activity overhead last evening – young are now strong flyers with no difficulty entering the chimney.’
Wonderful news!
Dauphin
On August 7th, Ken and Jan reported that:
‘A report on #2 had birds continually circling overhead (10+) with only 2 going down and none seen to come out. The roost chimney (#1 chimney) immediately had an exit and another and an entry with immediate exit and then again 15 minutes later and entry and exit so it looks like we still have feeding going on in this chimney. By the end of the roosting hour it was dark but still birds flying very vocally with 25 entries, 4 exits wo about 21+ in chimney??’
La Broquerie
David reported on August 15th that:
‘I did a watch on Wednesday but got there rather late (8.45) as I almost completely forgot! so I may have missed a few entrie
Anyway I saw 7 go down into the large chimney and 3 into the small chimney
Two things were interesting
- The birds were behaving totally differently to usual. No flying around close to the chimney and chittering as they went. They arrived from low down and went straight down in singles, never pairs. Almost as if they had a mission ahead.
- At least some have not yet migrated.’
Lower Fort Garry
Lots of monitoring here following a late nesting attempt. Fingers crossed! The monitoring has primarily been from Linda, Nia and Gerald, plus a wee bit from Frank and Jacquie.
August 13th:
‘LOTS of action in the white chimney, the West chimney on the east building. I think we had 8 or 9 entries and 2 or 3 exits. We observed no action at all on the West chimney of the West building, the red chimney.’
August 17th:
‘Max in chimney – 1 There may have already been one settled in for the night before we arrived because it was dark so early with the heavy smoke.
August 19th – 11 entries, 11 exits, 1 left in the chimney(???). Nia added:
‘We didn’t see any go into the chimney and stay. Maybe they entered for the night after we left when we could no longer see. 5 were flying at 6:44
Portage la Prairie
On August 15th, Gord reported as follows:
‘At the Trinity United Church Portage, we had a total of 10 entries into the south chimney and two birds that went elsewhere; there was 12 total.’
Saint François-Xavier
Michele and Mike have been out watching the church chimney a number of times this year. On August 15th, they reported as follows:
‘Our last night of swift watching was both very exciting and somewhat disappointing at the same time. We definitely saw a max. of 4 chimney swifts foraging right above us for most of the night. They put on quite a show but unfortunately we only saw 1 enter the chimney before it got too dark to observe any longer.’
Selkirk
The Selkirk Birdwatchers are amazing!
August 12th, Gerald reported:
‘I checked the Merchant’s Hotel from 8:35 PM to 8:45 PM. I thought a young one was trying to enter a chimney. I took some video of it flying around. Then at 8:43, 2 swifts entered the larger north chimney. I left at 8:45 PM. I then parked on the street to watch the Lord Selkirk Hotel and the building at 241 Manitoba Ave. I saw no entrances or exits. As it got dark at about 9:15 a Swift flew at low level over Main Street and Manitoba Ave, then disappeared. I am curious as to where it was going. Being too dark, I went home.’
August 14th, Gerald was the bearer of more good news:
‘Large Stack Selkirk Mental Hospital: Donna and Robert Hempler and I checked Tuesday evening. We counted 20 entering the large stack and 3 entering the Infirmary chimney.’
August 15th, Gerald sent us this email:
‘We had a WOW!! at the Merchant’s Hotel yesterday. Ray and Sybil reported 11 entries and no exits between 8:12 and 9:15 PM yesterday into the larger chimney.
August 20th, Nia, Linda and Robert reported 6 in the main stack at the Mental Health Centre, and 2 in the Infirmary. Robert had 2 go into the infirmary
St Adolphe
Barb reported from August 16th and 17th:
‘My last swift sightings of the year may will turn out to be in Orillia. Thursday over the noon hour, there were no swifts sighting in St A; did a multi-site look around. Friday AM, did a 90 minute session at the Club and then last night did a 70 minute roosting hour session. Not a swift in the sky!!! No Purple Martins about either. It was almost apocalyptic on Thursday, less so Friday, with the smoke filled sky. Kind of reminded me of the scene of the dinosaur march in Fantasia as the world ended.’
Winnipeg – Downtow
John has been doing his usual magnificent rounds of swift monitoring. Here is a summary:
August 5th – 520 William, 2 entries/2 exits
August 5th – 303 Assiniboine, 10 entries
August 12th – 303 Assiniboine, 2 entries
August 18th – 303 Assiniboine, 0 entries
On August 14th, John emailed the following:
‘I looked around the area of 303 Assiniboine between 8pm and 930pm tonight for swift activity hoping for another roost. At 8:58 I saw 6 CHSW flying in a group just west of the Donald bridge north of the river, for about four minutes. I got the impression they were not there to feed but to roost. I saw at least a couple dive down as if entering a chimney. No chimney was visible but they all seemed to disappear in the same spot. At least a couple more appeared and also disappeared in the same spot. I will go back and see if they show up tomorrow if I can and try to find the chimney.
On August 16th, a new site is discovered at 348 Assiniboine:
‘This didn’t seem a likely chimney to see swifts enter. Swifts were entering both side, the screening on the left side didn’t appear open on top but is and the right side appears to have a glazed ceramic liner which I thought would make clinging difficult, maybe that is why they didn’t stay long.’
A strange one here – 14 entries, 11 exits, and only 3 left in the chimney – which you can see here:
Two also entered, one in either flue on August 17
Winnipeg – East Kildonan
On August 7th, Pat reported from Gordon King Memorial United Church
‘Went out Wednesday and managed to see one swift enter at about 9:2
Winnipeg – Fort Rouge
Story of the report comes from Katharine in Fort Rouge. In 2015, Katharine reported possibly seeing a swift drop into an apartment block on Grant from her seat on the bus into work (but was unable to confirm). Following reports of swifts being spied in this area in 2018, she returned to the scene, and reported the following:
‘On another note, I have been dying to tell you that on Friday late afternoon (this would have been late July), after having supper at Applebee’s in Grant Park, John offered to park and let me look at that infamous apartment block at 1055 Grant Ave. at Wilton. Within less than 10 minutes, a CHSW actually emerged and flew off at 8:08 pm! Then one entered the chimney at 8:15 pm and emerged again at 8:17 pm. I have been watching from the bus every morning/afternoon with no luck, so this was the first time that, for absolute certainty, I saw activity in and out of that chimney. Unfortunately, John did not have the patience to let me watch any longer, so I only have those observations for just under one half hour of watching (8:02 pm to 8:27 pm). I’m also anxious to get back there soon to do a longer watch (although I’m hoping that the rain storms these past two evenings did not impact them.)’
Fantastic news, and we will confirm the original sighting as an entry in our databases three years later!
New volunteer, Leah, reported on August 9th (with her friend Carol) from 915 Corydon:
‘Success! Very cool to observe this site (4 entries, 2 exits) – wishing now that I had gotten involved a lot earlier… ah well, next year!’
And with the bug catching, on August 15th:
‘2 entries and several birds fly bys in the general vicinity (not around the chimney). This included one individual that was flying very low, slow and with rapid wing beats..
Winnipeg – St Boniface
Another new volunteer, Blair, reported from 690 St Joseph on August 13th:
‘In summary, I arrived at the site at 8:53, just 6 minutes before sunset and as I was at the corner of the building before I could see the chimney, I heard and could see 8 swifts, circling the building. After getting into a position to view the chimney, I recorded seven entries, may have missed one. I could not tell the age of the birds entering, new at this. The entries occurred at the following times, 9:03.40, 9:12.24, 9:14.06, 9:18.32, 9:19.03, 9:25.06, and 9:25.21. After another 10 minutes without any activity I called it a night.’
Another bug caught, Blair returned on August 14th:
‘I arrived at 8:21 and observed until 9:28; sunset at 8:48.In summary, I saw at most 7 swifts flying around the building and in the end, seven entered the chimney to roost.’
Winnipeg – St James
Multiple attempts have been made to get a handle on these swifts, especially in an area from Deer Lodge to Moray
On August 5th, Adam, Lynnea, Sabina, Tim and Christian did a multi-site check noting swifts into at least 6 chimneys, 2 of them previously unknown to MCSI.
On August 6th, Frank and Jacquie sent the following:
‘On the way, Jacquie thought she saw an entry into the (apparently screened) chimney at the Thunderbird Apartments at 2150 Portage. There was a lot of activity at the Moorgate. We had 16 entries and 6 exits. Looks like 10 CHSW. in the chimney. THe maximum numbr of swifts we saw in the air was 8 at 21:08.’
On August 7th, a multi-site survey was made:
Thunderbird – Christian counted 10, 9 in an open flue, one in a screened flue. 4 birds appeared to drop into an invisible chimney
Stanley – Christian counted 6 birds
Moorgate – Jacquie counted 4 birds
Silver Heights – Frank counted 3 birds
Deer Lodge – Sabina counted 0 birds
Silver Heights west – Lewis counted 2 birds
Foodfare – Lewis counted 1 bird
New apartment – Tim counted 0 birds
Private House – Tim counted 1 bird, but thought he could hear chicks from inside chimney near rim
30 swifts were counted in the air at one stage on this evening, mainly because they were chasing a Merlin!
On August 15th, Frank and Jacquie reported as follows:
‘We staked out the Moorgate and Silver Heights tonight. The skies were virtually swift-less until 21:02 when eight CHSW appeared from the south. Before their arrival, we saw single birds at a distance until the odd chimney entry.
Moorgate: ten entries, 1 exit for 9 CHSW
Silver Heights: 2 entries, no exits.’
Winnipeg – Tuxedo
Paulson reports from Assiniboine Park on the 8th, 9th and 11th August:
‘We did observations last week on the zoo chimney and the old conservatory chimney. Alas, we did not observe and roosting in the zoo chimney. But we did see roosting in the old conservatory chimney! I saw one entry mid-afternoon last week, so we put in a couple evening of observations. One night I saw 2 go in to roost, but on Saturday Stephen saw none.’
I apologise profusely if your report(s) have been missed. As you can see, there has been an absolutely astounding amount of data collected, and we are incredibly grateful to everyone involved.
— Tim Poole
