Author: mbchimneyswift@gmail.com

A happy belated Canada Day to all of you! I hope everyone is recovering from our recent spree of severe weather. All of our best wishes here at MCSI to our volunteers who were impacted, especially in southwestern Manitoba. While our spring monitoring finished last week, we now are entering the time when Chimney Swifts are working on incubation and starting to feed nestlings! We encourage you to continue monitoring during this period, as knowing which sites are used to nest (as opposed to just roost) is important. As well, data collected during this period helps to inform us on timing of different nest stages in Manitoba, and if we are lucky, how many young fledge from a nest. Monitoring during this period can be done both during the day, or in the evening, as once the young hatch they need to be fed throughout the day.

The same monitoring reports are used as in the Wednesday monitoring nights and can continue to be sent to mbchimneyswift@gmail.com. Thank you for your continued support in monitoring our swifts.

Now, on to some updates!

From Barb in St Adolphe we have “As of mid-afternoon Friday July 3, the 5 “old faithful” nest sites are active. That is good news after the deluge on Tuesday night through Canada Day morning. Incubation continues at the SE and NE Club Amical sites along with the Church and Main St chimneys. Today is HATCHING day at Brodeur Bros./Daycare site, so we welcome St Adolphe’s newest avian residents!”

Garry spend part of his Canada Day afternoon monitoring Chimney Swifts for us at a site on 722 Watt Street. He observed two daytime entries, with quick entry/ exit turn around times, about an hour apart. This pattern is a strong indicator that Chimney Swifts are likely nesting in this location, as they have in the past.

Margaret and Amelia also spent part of their Canada Day monitoring in Brandon and ended up with two roosting Chimney Swifts at the end of their observation period at the Orange Block building.

Also on July 1^st in Selkirk, Nia and Linda watched the chimneys at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre with three Chimney Swifts in the smaller chimney and 10 in the larger chimney. Gerald was out watching the chimneys at the St Andrews Lock and Dam complex and had one bird in the first chimney, and one bird in the other chimney. Previously there had been a second bird in one of the Lock and Dam complex chimneys – Gerald’s hypothesis is that the second bird may have already been in the chimney during the monitoring period incubating eggs. Winona monitored at the Merchant’s Hotel on Eveline St and observed two swifts roosting for the night, with another two swifts that flew off without roosting in the chimney she was watching. On July 2^nd Gerald also watched the chimneys at Lower Fort Garry Historical site. One chimney had no entries or exits, while the other had one swift roost for the night (down from the previous two roosting in earlier weeks – perhaps another possible bird on the nest incubating? Hopefully time will tell!).

Nicole was out and about in Osborne Village and remarked “I was in Osbourne Village for a bike ride and there were so many swifts in the air.  It was close to 10pm so we swung by the Biltmore and watched the chimney.  We saw 3-5 swifts in the air.  We had 2 enter the chimney at the Biltmore Apartment at 10:10pm Saturday night, June 27, 2020”.

We also have a new possible site identified by Dominique, in North Kildonan. She sent us “Yesterday and today there were six birds flying very low – at times just above the treetops.  At one point I am quite certain I saw a bird drop into a chimney.  This house is at XXX Kildonan Dr. The home has a tall brick chimney with no visible insert or other barrier to the swifts getting in there.”

Luc over in St Jean Baptiste was monitoring at the church where three birds had 8 entries and 6 exits in 60 minutes. This is certainly a lot of activity at the chimney!

At the St Francois Xavier Roman Catholic Parish chimney Michelle and Mike had the same numbers to report this week as last week, with three swifts seen, but only two roosting at the Parish.

In Portage la Prairie at the Woman’s Correctional Facility last week, Louise and Gordon also saw three swifts, with only two entering the chimney to roost.

Frank and Jacquie headed out to the Roman Catholic Church in La Broquerie last week and had a very busy time watching the 19 entries and 10 exits made by nine birds in the large chimney, while the smaller chimney hosted one Chimney Swift.

Deborah and Carl monitored the Old Grace Housing Co-op for us last week. Unfortunately, they got skunked (0 swifts), however zero data is important data! It helps to inform us on Chimney Swift movement (within years and between years) and habitat preferences.

Myself and one of our summer students, Nate, were in southwestern Manitoba for two weeks doing early morning grassland bird surveys. This meant we also had evenings free to do some Chimney Swift monitoring as well. I watched the Antler River Historical Society Museum in Melita for an evening monitoring period and had two go down right at the end of the observation time. They made MANY aborted entries before actually going in – to the point where I actually let out a cheer when they did finally enter!

I also watched the Legion in Melita. I arrived just before sunset. One swift was already in the chimney and popped up, and near the end of the monitoring session 2 swifts went down. This time there were a max of 7 swifts in the air. If we assume 2 roost at the Legion, and 2 roost at the Museum that leaves us with 3 bonus swifts. There are 3 other sites we know of from past years – so likely somewhere else is being used.

After fieldwork one day, Nate and I drove out to Pierson and Lyleton to scout out potential chimneys. No swifts were seen in Lyleton, but we saw 3 circling around Pierson. We watched an abandoned blue house for 25 minutes and saw what looked like an aborted entry. There are other appropriate chimney options in Pierson so they may be nesting/roosting elsewhere, but 2 of the 3 were circling low in the area. This is the first time MCSI has observed Chimney Swifts in Pierson, MB.

— Amanda Shave

We have made it to our last week of official Chimney Swift roost monitoring this season. Wednesday the 25^th looks good weather-wise so it should be a good final night.

Last Wednesday, on the other hand, proved to be a bit of a challenge for monitoring as many of us dealt with storms in the area, but a few folks were able to get out before the storm hit and see some Chimney Swifts. Gord in Portage saw up to six Chimney Swifts and at least one using the Rufus Prince building chimney, while Ken and the Dauphin team once again saw Chimney Swifts enter chimneys at the Watson Arts Center, Old Scott’s Hardware, and the roosting chimney on Main St.

Thursday evening Luc monitored St Jean Baptiste Church and had at least two, but possibly four, Chimney Swifts enter the chimney for the night. Luc did mention he was “wondering if [he] missed the exit of the first two swifts as 4 swifts in the chimney seems high for the breeding season.” Perhaps this Wednesday will provide some clarity if the chimney is being used for nesting or just night roosting. Elsewhere in Lockport, Jackie did not see Chimney Swifts use the chimney in the maintenance compound but did see “two CHSW foraging on the wing [the next] morning” and Gerald saw Chimney Swifts enter the chimneys that evening.

On Thursday I also did my first evening roost survey at Augustine United Church in Winnipeg and saw one Chimney Swift use the chimney as a night roost, although there were two others in the area. Unfortunately, my survey was cut half an hour short when the rain (that was not forecasted!) started to come down too heavy for monitoring. Hopefully the rest of you remained dry.

A very big thank you to everyone that has volunteered and reported Chimney Swift sightings so far this summer. I look forward to reading all your reports from Wednesday!

— Alyssa Stulberg

Week Four of Chimney Monitoring and Introducing our Summer Students

I’d like to introduce our two Assistants for the MCSI and Manitoba IBA programs this summer!

Nathan has graduated from Lakeland College with a diploma in wildlife and fisheries conservation and is working towards his B.Sc. in resource management at the University of Northern British Columbia. He is primarily working on grassland bird programming for the IBA, but you may occasionally see him out doing some chimney monitoring for us.

Alyssa has her B.Sc. from the University of Regina where she spent most summers doing a variety of fieldwork for graduate students. A lot of this work focused on researching bats, but included Western Painted Turtles and Common Nighthawks. She is currently working on her M.Sc. from the University of Winnipeg on bats, however she is also involved in the birding community through her volunteering at Oak Hammock Marsh and Last Mountain Lake Bird Observatories. Alyssa will be very involved with the MCSI program – so stop by and say hi, if you come across her monitoring a chimney!

In other news we’ve had some adventurous weather for all of our intrepid MCSI volunteers (and the Chimney Swifts themselves) to handle these past couple days.

Over in Dauphin, Ken and the Dauphin crew were battling some wicked weather near the end of his observation period “We had our doubts that we might not get to watch the chimneys tonight as there were lots of “pop-up” thunderstorms but they held off till the last swifts went down their respective chimneys… Now the wipers are going and lightning flashes are lighting up the west and southern skies so we’re heading home (10:15).” However, they were able to see swifts enter chimneys at the Watson Arts Centre 2018-14, Old Scott’s Hardware 2018-15 and the roosting chimney in Dauphin (MSCI site #600). This crazy night was then followed up by a frost warning yesterday evening, a bit of a roller coaster!

Frank and Jacquie were out at the Providence College in Otterburne this past Wednesday and saw quite the show of swifts. Frank mentioned “The CHSW were generally high and circling toward the river and forest to the SW with none of the usual overflights of the campus library/residence areas. So, 3 in the chimney nearest the Bell Tower (#550), 9 in the central chimney (#551), and 2 in the skinny chimney (#552) for a grand total of 14.”

Blair was watching chimneys on Tache in St Boniface. While he did not see any swifts in enter the chimney he was watching, he did see 20 swifts heading west over the building and the Red River… a new mystery to solve!

Elsewhere, Luc Blanchette monitored the chimney at the St Jean Baptiste Church and had one Chimney Swift entering the chimney for the night, and the same outcome happened at the St Francois Xavier Parish Church for Mike and Michele.

— Amanda Shave

Third Week of Chimney Swift Monitoring

Wow, I can’t believe we are already on our third week of monitoring! This week is a “make it or break it” time for Chimney Swifts in Manitoba! Barb Stewart, who has monitored the Chimney Swifts in St Adolphe, MB in great detail for many years, has determined that if Chimney Swifts have not started nest building by June 4th, they are not likely to have sufficient time to raise young before they must depart on fall migration.

Good news about Chimney Swifts using an artificial chimney! Chimney Swifts were seen entering the Assiniboine Park Zoo Tower by Laura and Paulson at the Assiniboine Park Zoo during the May 27^th monitoring evening. This makes the second year in a row that we have had swifts using the artificial chimney. While it has still be too early to determine if Chimney Swifts are using the tower for roosting or nesting, we are excited to see what the season brings.

We are also happy to report that Chimney Swifts have been using the newly renovated St Francois Xavier Roman Catholic Church chimney by volunteer monitors Michelle and Mike. Church members are been informed and are delighted that their temporary tenants have returned.

We would like to thank all of our volunteers doing chimney-side monitoring, stay-at-home monitoring and sending us incidental reports of Chimney Swifts to help us build the picture of nesting and roosting sites in Manitoba this year. So far we have heard from volunteers in almost all areas of Winnipeg, and across southern Manitoba.

Just a reminder that our next monitoring evening is June 3^rd, 2020. It looks like it should be warm and clear! We are also happy to hear about any Chimney Swift monitoring that you may do outside our normal MCSI nights by submitting reporting forms or through our incidental sighting form on the website (links on the Resources and Links page.).

• Amanda

Chimney-side Monitoring Is A-Go

As many of you have no doubt heard, the Manitoba Government has further loosened restrictions for indoor and outdoor gatherings, businesses, etc. Upon hearing this news, the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative has decided to bring back the Chimney-side Monitoring program. Volunteers can now either monitor local chimneys as per the normal protocol (with social distancing guidelines still being followed) or continue to do the Stay-at-home Monitoring protocol.

Monitoring will continue to take place on each Wednesday until June 24^th, with rain dates for the directly following Thursdays if needed. Please see the monitoring protocol and reporting forms on the Resources and Links page on the MCSI website.

If you decide to go out for chimney-side monitoring we ask that you follow the ABCD’s of Chimney Swift monitoring in the time of COVID-19:

Abide by current Covid-19 Public Health directives.

Be aware of how your presence may impact other people. Do your best to stay off sidewalks to allow for physical distancing and respect the privacy of residents who may be isolating.

Choose the best monitoring approach to engage Chimney Swifts in 2020. Keep your personal safety, and the safety of those around you, at the forefront.

Drive with due diligence. Travel prudently and try to stay in your neighbourhood, if possible.

Please also continue to monitor in household groups, or groups of two or less people. If you plan on monitoring a popular site (such as Assiniboine School) please send a quick email to mbchimneyswift@gmail.com so that we can keep track of how many people will be watching on a particular day.

A big thank you for all of our volunteers taking this evolving situation in stride. This has been a challenging year so far and we are grateful for the help and support of our volunteers!

• MCSI Steering Committee

Amanda saw her first Chimney Swift entries, as our new MCSI Coordinator, last night (May 19)! Amanda describes her wonderful winged experience –
“I went to check out Enderton Park this evening after Tim seeing the Chimney Swifts nearby. Heard them almost immediately and tracked them to the northwest side of the park. Sat and watched them circling around for about 40 minutes. Maximum of 5 swifts, but mostly 2. Saw two go down the chimney at XX Avonhurst at 9:09pm. My first swifts down a chimney as MCSI coordinator! And I think its a new site, as well!”

Indeed, the bonus round was the identification of the first new site of 2020! What a great start to backyard, + slightly beyond, birding.

Tonight is the night our new stay-at-home program launches, so be sure to be on the lookout for Chimney Swifts and other aerial insectivores. Links to the new protocol and datasheets can be found at: https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/?page_id=2216  Reports of swifts have been received from St Adolphe, Winnipeg – River Heights, Osborne Village, South Osborne, Royalwood etc., Selkirk, and Dauphin.

To cap off a great start to her work with MCSI, Amanda presented St Francois Xavier Roman Catholic Church with a Swift Champion plaque. The parishioners were acknowledged for their significant efforts in protecting the Church chimney as important swift habitat (see below).

“Keeping a home for the birds
St. Francois Xavier Roman Catholic Church (1049 Hwy. 26) is a place of worship, but also home to a threatened bird species.

On May 8, St. Francois Xavier Parish was honoured to accept a Swift Champion award from the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative to recognize its work to conserve a chimney swift roosting and nesting location.

This spring, the church chimney was repaired with assistance from a federal government grant approved in 2019. Church members wanted the chimney work to be completed quickly to allow the swifts to continue to use the chimney as a nesting site. A site is usually selected in early June after the birds return in late May from overwintering in the upper Amazon basin in South America.

Listed as a threatened species in Canada, chimney swifts select the interior of brick chimneys for nests.

The SFX Parish signed a 10-year agreement in 2019 to protect its church’s chimney for swift habitat. Chimney swifts were first spotted at the church in 2017 by MCSI monitors, and between two and five birds have been sighted in the subsequent summers. — Staff (courtesy Winnipeg Free Press website)”

Keep your eyes to the skies! We hope to hear of your sightings tonight.

— Barb Stewart

MCSI Stay-at-Home Chimney Swift Monitoring for Summer 2020

It’s time everyone! The first two Chimney Swifts of the spring were seen by Lynnea Parker last night flying over Shorehill Drive in Winnipeg. This means it is about time we start our monitoring for 2020!

Due to COVID-19 impacting our programming, we have put our heads together to come up with a stay-at-home monitoring plan for Chimney Swifts in Manitoba for spring 2020. We ask that you do not monitor from public spaces. Instead, this program is set up for monitoring from your own property, backyard, balcony, or window. We encourage people in all locations from rural countryside, to small town, to downtown to join in. We have tried to make the monitoring and reporting process as easy as possible. So hopefully you can sit back, relax, and see (or hear) some swifts!

he monitoring period will take place starting Wednesday, May 20^th. We will monitor every Wednesday from May 20^th to June 24^th (rain dates will be the Thursday of the same week). We ask that you start monitoring 20 minutes before sunset and continue monitoring for 10 minutes after sunset (for a total of 30 minutes). Similar to normal Chimney Swift monitoring, please also report basic weather conditions such as temperature, wind, and precipitation. The full monitoring protocol can be found here . Reporting is online through our website. The reporting form can be found here.

While our survey is focused on Chimney Swifts, we also ask that you keep an eye and ear out for other aerial insectivores (birds that catch insects while in flight) such as swallows and nightjars. Members of these groups of birds may be an indicator that one part of possible Chimney Swift habitat (food) is present. Additionally, many of these other aerial insectivores are also experiencing steep population declines, so monitoring their abundance is useful. As this year’s program is new, we have added a handy aerial insectivore identification factsheet at the end of the Stay-at-Home Monitoring Protocol.

While we are limited in our ability to gather this year, we hope you all can join us for this new and exciting chapter in Chimney Swift monitoring. Thank you to all of our volunteers past, present and future, as we get ready to welcome back our Chimney Swifts in 2020! If you have any questions about monitoring, the protocol or the reporting form please send me an email at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com.

Amanda Shave, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator, on behalf of the MCSI Steering Committee (Christian Artuso, Ron Bazin, Neil Butchard, Lewis Cocks, Ken De Smet, Jack Dubois, Nicole Firlotte, Frank Machovec, Tim Poole, Barb Stewart and Rob Stewart)

A New Spin on 2020 Chimney Swift Monitoring in Manitoba

Since 2007, MCSI has grown an active engaged monitoring program, now growing to include participation in the National Roost Monitoring Program, Wednesday night blitzes and all-season nest monitoring. Over the past couple of years we have seen increasing volunteer participation, with more chimneys being watched than ever before. This has helped MCSI to identify over 50 new active sites in the past 3 years and swifts are being found in the breeding season in new communities such as Emerson and Neepawa.

Covid-19 has already affected a great many different programs and activities. For Chimney Swifts, we have learned all spring roost monitoring (NRMP), in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritime provinces has been cancelled. Many other field programs (such as the Breeding Bird Survey, and other research by government and research

organizations) have also been cancelled this summer. As medical professionals put their lives at risk during this pandemic, we have to assess our best course of action in Manitoba. As biologists and citizen scientists, we also have to support the significant efforts of our fellow medical scientists battling on different fronts to contain, study and beat this virus.

2020, MCSI will limit sponsorship of monitoring programs to a yard, balcony, or window-based Chimney Swift and aerial insectivore survey. We will be sending out a protocol and links to an online data submission tool by the middle of May, with our aim of beginning monitoring in the week of May 18th. Our goal is to create a survey that still uses citizen science to collect important data on Chimney Swifts, and at the same time attract new volunteers from people not previously engaged in our program. This approach might even reveal that swifts are breeding in previously unknown communities! With the additional of other aerial insectivores, we also hope to raise awareness of this threatened group of birds, including swallows, martins and nighthawks (although we will continue to focus on Chimney Swifts). We also hope that through catching the Chimney Swift bug, we might be able to recruit new neighborhood volunteers for our renewed monitoring program in the future.

MCSI will notify our valued monitors if a change in monitoring protocols is to be made. We did not take this decision lightly, but considered solidarity with currentpublic health advice, the ongoing need to social distance, need to limit travel distance, and wanting to demonstrate best practice, and avoid an image of biologists ignoring the public health threat. This will obviously be a disappointment to many people, but we believe the long-term benefits of this decision will outweigh the short-term loss of data. Even as the province opens up, many of our citizens will remain in their apartments, condos and homes, and we do not want our volunteers to be an added stress and burden at this time.

Every dark cloud has a silver lining. We look forward to you joining us with your participation in the “backyard” counts. We have seen a rise in the prevalence of backyard birding and local birding, and we hope to generate similar enthusiasm for Chimney Swifts and other aerial insectivores, as well all of us discovering the diversity of aerial insectivores in our own backyards.

Stay safe,

— Amanda Shave, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator, on behalf of the MCSI Steering Committee (Christian Artuso, Ron Bazin, Neil Butchard, Lewis Cocks, Ken De Smet, Jack Dubois, Nicole Firlotte, Frank Machovec, Tim Poole, Barb Stewart and Rob Stewart)

Chimney Swifts have touched down in Canada!

Some exciting news to report as we all eagerly await the arrival of Chimney Swifts in Manitoba. Winnie Wake and friends at London’s Chimney Swift Program in southern Ontario received the first detailed sighting of a Chimney Swift in Canada on April 29^th. As Barb mentioned in the last blog post Winnie had previously said “Most years, swifts show up here in the last few days or week of April” and she had the timing down pat! Indeed a glance at eBird.org (https://ebird.org/map/chiswi?neg=true&env.minX=&env.minY=&env.maxX=&env.maxY=&zh=false&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=cur) shows multiple Chimney Swift sightings in southern Ontario. Closer to Manitoba, sightings have taken place in South Dakota and Minnesota.

We also have Winnie’s words of wisdom in where Chimney Swift watchers in Winnipeg, and around Manitoba might spot their first Swift of the season “Quite often, London’s early swifts are seen near the river corridor. They seem to know that aquatic insects tend to emerge a little earlier than land-based ones. That means the general area of the river likely offers better foraging prospects at a time of year when numbers of insects in the air are still relatively low.” With many Manitoba communities that host Chimney Swifts located around waterways, it can be a good place to keep watch for the early birds.

As the Chimney Swift come every closer to Manitoba – what can we do to help? If you have a fireplace, please remember to close the damper. The damper is the metal door that closes access from the hearth into the chimney flue. Closing the damper means that if you host Chimney Swifts this season, they will stay in the chimney where they belong, and you will avoid any accidental mishaps of Swifts ending up in your house! As well, stay tuned to the MCSI blog as we will have an update on MCSI monitoring coming soon.

–Amanda

Who could possibly have written a script for Earth Day 2020 that included living with a pandemic? Author Margaret Atwood might have. But she didn’t. However, as a master of dystopian literature, and student of history, she has offered an important perspective on our current reality.

Margaret Atwood reflected that “this is by no means the worst such episode that the world has ever seen”. Importantly, she offered that moments like these offer a “reset button opportunity” and that “Maybe we should look at the way we’ve been doing things and think of ways of doing them differently.”

( https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5502954/margaret-atwood-waubgeshig-rice-and-daniel-kalla-share-their-pandemic-reading-lists-1.5502962 )

Yes, these are challenging times. Yes, there is great hope that life will improve. But there is no crystal ball to predict the “when” and “how it will happen”. For now, we live with a stark reminder of how inhabitants of Mother Earth are connected so intimately. We are all tasked with the responsibility of staying healthy – as individuals, community members, and global citizens. Let’s remember to extend our actions as people who need to be good stewards of the earth’s resources.

In Manitoba, there is much to appreciate in our natural world. That includes our birds. Chimney Swifts continue their northern migration, having now reached Minneapolis, MN. (https://ebird.org/map/chiswi?neg=true&env.minX=&env.minY=&env.maxX=&env.maxY=&zh=false&gp=false&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=cur)

As we all look forward to our swift’s arrival in the next few weeks, the MCSI Steering Committee continues to discuss the upcoming monitoring season and rethink ways of safely engaging with the birds this year. In early May, we will talk about the 2020 Chimney Swift monitoring season as it is impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. We will factor in the current public health advisories and offer up some options having hit the “reset button”. Stay tuned for news flashes about MCSI monitoring, stewardship, outreach, and science activities planned for this year!

As for my Earth Day, it is time to splash through the floodwaters of the Red River which are marinating our acreage south of Winnipeg. The water levels are nothing dire this year thankfully, just another reminder that Mother Nature should not be taken for granted. Now it’s off to hear the high-flying cranes and dodge the low flying cormorants…hoping that it will be Chimney Swift sightings that fill the sky sooner than later!

— Barb Stewart