mbchimneyswift@gmail.com – Page 20 – Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative

First Night

Saturday evening saw our first monitoring night of 2018, and a varied and interesting one it was too.

Before carrying on, I would like to thank everyone who went out to look for swifts. Due to the long weekend, a broken phone, and family commitments, I have been unable to respond individually this time, but as you will tell from the below, we have received a number of reports, for which we are very thankful.

Saturday was, let’s say, a mixed bag. There seemed to be an obvious dichotomy between those who had a fair few swifts, and those who had none at all. Let’s start with the empty skies.

In St Francois-Xavier, Mike and Michelle returned following a successful 2017 to empty skies. In fact, this is their report:

‘The only observation I can make is about the remarkable lack of birds of any sort spotted or bugs for that matter, which may explain our disappointing results. Last year we saw birds nesting in the church steeple nearby, at least 3 pairs of barn swallows nesting under the eaves of the large structure next door and a pair of Eastern bluebirds were regular visitors, flying down from the hydro line to snatch little moths in the grass right in front of us. We saw none of those birds today.’

Strange, but let’s hope for better luck tomorrow! In Winnipeg, Wendy, Justin and Annika watched the Good News Fellowship in St Vital, Pat and Dave monitored a new church site in East Kildonan, Christian and Francene observed the new chimney at the Old Grace Housing Coop, Barb and Rob sat at the Assiniboine Park Zoo Tower, and Tim was out and about in South Osborne. All turned up zeros – not just zero entries, but zero birds.

Lynnea watched five (yes five) chimneys from her balcony and counted 13-20 swifts in groups over Osborne Village. She saw 2 head down towards 375 Stradbrook (which was out of sight, but we know the site), and none in the five. This area is well worth keeping an eye on though.

Bob and Valerie were more successful at the New Silver Heights in St James. 15 in the air, 2 in the chimney BUT an early evening entry-exit cycle indicates that we have a nesting chimney here.

Luc in St-Jean-Baptiste counted 4 swifts in the air, with 2 entering the church. Interesting, as there is only one known chimney in the town!

Frank and Jacquie in Otterburne had 5 swifts in the air, and 4 swifts enter the 3 chimneys. The fifth swift may well have been missed.

David in La Broquerie reported:

‘It seemed there was one pair and one unattached one. The pair went in first into the large chimney and then the unattached one made a few look-see passes at the small chimney but eventually went in the big chimney. I wondered if it had either been a parent or a young from the small chimney last year but found it different after the repairs and thus was a bit suspicious…. finally going into the large chimney.’

Elsewhere, Barb reports 7 swifts on Monday in St Adolphe, and 3 nesting attempts underway in the consistent sites (Main St, NE Club Amical and the church). Ken and Jan were away over the weekend but got back in time on Monday evening to catch 9 entries in Dauphin, with a tenth spare bird either going elsewhere, or dropping in without being noticed (forest fires have made the sky in Dauphin hazy).

And that, I believe is it for now. If you have more data to send in, we will include it during the next update!

This evening (Monday 22nd), we will be at Assiniboine School for our training event from 8:45. Bring a chair, and join us for some swift chat.

Finally, to tomorrow evening, the first official NRMP count. The weather looks good, and we are hopeful of good numbers. If anyone picks this up in the Souris area, Tim and others will be counting there, meeting from 8:15pm, outside Murphy’s:An Irish Legacy. Otherwise sunset times are as follows:

Steinbach: 21:13
Winnipeg and Selkirk: 21:17
Portage: 21:22
Brandon and Souris: 21:28
Melita: 21:29
Dauphin: 21:34

Happy swifting tomorrow, and let’s hope for less empty skies this time (a Common Nighthawk over Riverview last night points to more promising things to come)!

— Tim Poole

A New Season begins!

Saturday May 19th will be our first monitoring evening of 2018. We hope everyone is fired up and ready to go. Just a quick note on what to expect. Our protocol is to begin monitoring 1 hour ahead of sundown, and end 30 minutes after sundown. I will be using this website to get my times: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/canada/. For tomorrow, aim for the following times, depending on where you live:

Winnipeg: sunset 9:13; start 8:13; end 9:43
Brandon:  sunset 9:24; start 8:24; end 9:54
Selkirk:  sunset 9:13; start 8:13; end 9:43
Portage:  sunset 9:18; start 8:18; end 9:48
Melita:  sunset 9:13; start 8:13; end 9:43
Dauphin:  sunset 9:30; start 8:30; end 10:00

There are certainly more swifts around than earlier in the week. A pair have been spotted by Barb at the church in St Adolphe, Robert and Gerald have been watching the giant stack in Selkirk, with up to 8 being counted on a single night, and John has hit the jackpot at Assiniboine School, a cool 74 diving into the chimney on Wednesday evening. For those who have never seen a large roost before, John’s description is certainly worth a read:

I was birding at Assiniboine Park and watching the sky for swifts but saw none. On my way home I saw three swifts from the foot bridge flying east along the river. When I got to Assiniboine School there were three swifts flying over the building. The number of swifts steadily grew as they all flew around the area swooping closer and closer to the chimney until the spectacular mass entry 21 minutes after my arrival. Numbers were hard to count when flying as they were coming and going but I certain there were at least 40. By counting in groups of 5 as they entered the chimney I believe I got a reasonably accurate count of 60 within a few seconds and a few more after that. It was a spectacular sight for my first visit to the school.

Last night (Thursday), David in La Broquerie spotted a large number of swifts over the lagoon at 5pm, but saw none during a roost watch – a cold, wet evening probably packed the swifts off to bed early for the night.

We still have lanyards, if anyone would like one. They look very smart, and are well worth having with you. Please email us if you would like one (or more), and we will mail or deliver them.

Finally, data sheets! Here is the link to the datasheets (pdf, Word). If anyone would also like to submit their data online, you can also copy and paste the information below into an email.

Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative -Monitoring Report 2018

Date (DD/MM/YY):
Location:
MCSI Site No:
Daytime or Roosting hour*
Time of Sunset if Roosting Hour:
Monitoring Start Time:
Monitoring End Time:
Start Temperature (Celsius):
Observer(s):
Contact Information for Primary Observer:

*Roosting hour is 1 hr before sunset and 1/2hr after sunset

Please record the time of each entry and exit and how many swifts were involved.			Comments Any unique observations regarding swift behaviour or local disturbances
Time	Entry or Exit?	No. of swifts	Comments
21:45	Entry	2	Example only
22:02	Exit	1	Example only

Total witnessed entries:
Total witnessed exits:
Maximum swifts in chimney:
Maximum swifts seen in the air:

Good luck everyone, and let’s hope we get lots of swifts tomorrow evening!

– Tim Poole and the MCSI Steering Committee

Swift Viewing – Rescheduled to Tuesday, May 22

New date and time for viewing event!

The viewing and training event will be held at Assiniboine School, 175 Winston Road, Winnipeg, on Tuesday, May 22nd at 8:40 PM. The school is located off Portage Avenue, west of the Viscount Gort. The Assiniboine School Chimney has historically been very popular with local Chimney Swifts.

Folks from the Chimney Swift Initiative will be on hand to answer questions, demonstrate how to count swifts, and complete a count for the evening. We will also hand out our new volunteer lanyards, data sheets, and factsheets.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Tim Poole at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com.

–Frank M

They’re back!

Chimney Swift sighting reports have been coming in over the past week!

We’ve had sightings in Saint Adolphe, Headingley and from Norwood Flats and Saint James in Winnipeg. They may already be in an area near you… As Scotty observed at the end of The Thing From Another World, “Keep looking. Keep watching the skies.”

The “official” monitoring season is starting soon, and details about our program for 2018 may be found by scrolling down.

We have a “training night” of viewing at The Assiniboine School in Winnipeg (near Polo Park) on May 18. For years, there has been significant swift usage of the chimney at the school. Scroll down for details.

We have already had activity in the chimney at the Moorgate Apartments (2187 Portage Avenue) in Saint James, and we would like to have a volunteer to observe this site over the coming season. The building is in the Silver Heights neighbourhood in St. James, and it can be monitored from the comfort of your car on Portage Avenue across from the apartments.

— Frank Machovec

A Date for your Diary

Date for your Diary – Early Season Swift Watch and Training Event

MCSI are keen to help out any new volunteers and returning volunteers as you get going in 2018! For this reason, we will be hosting an early season swift count ahead of the first monitoring evening (which is on May 19th). The count will be held at Assiniboine School, 175 Winston Road, Winnipeg, on May 18th. We will be there to answer questions, demonstrate how to count swifts, and of course get a count for the evening. We will also hand out our new volunteer lanyards to any volunteer present (we can mail and deliver as well for those unable to come), data sheets, and factsheets.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Tim Poole at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com.

Important News Update For Swifters Ahead of the New Season

Greetings fellow swift enthusiasts!

As April turns to May, all thoughts move away from the less important things in life (yes, I do mean hockey), and to the upcoming swift season. Firstly, a quick update on news from the past week:

The first Chimney Swift sighting in Manitoba was reported on the Manitoba Birds Yahoo Group by Paul Friesen on April 24^th, at Canadian Mennonite University on Shaftesbury Avenue in Winnipeg. Given the extreme early date, we probably should put this down to the ‘early bird’ rather than expect a mass of arriving swifts in April.
Further afield, Ontario SwiftWatch Facebook posted that Chimney Swifts were reported near St Catherines on April 25.

Now to important news, MCSI have updated our forms and guidance for 2018. Changes are minimal (roost monitoring is still one hour prior to sundown, and thirty minutes afterwards). Frank has, as ever, uploaded these documents to the website, and they can be downloaded at the following links:

Data Sheet

MCSI Monitoring Protocol

National Roost Monitoring Protocol

Now to a recap of our recent trail of emails. We are still looking to recruit volunteers for a number of different aspects of the monitoring program. In summary these are:

National Roost Monitoring Program: Dates for 2018 are:

May 23rd
May 27th
May 31st
June 4^th

MCSI would also like to add a couple of extra monitoring dates if possible, one before the NRMP on May 19th, and one after on June 8th. We would finish the roost monitoring season as well with our annual Swift Night out at Assiniboine School on June 12th.

We are really keen to get new volunteers for a few roost sites. These are our priorities. It would be wonderful to find volunteers to cover the 4 nights for these sites!

Souris – Murphy’s: An Irish Legacy

Winnipeg (City Centre) – 442 William

Winnipeg (Fort Rouge) – 517 Beresford

Winnipeg (Fort Rouge) – 321 Stradbrook

Winnipeg (St James) – Moorgate Apartments, 2187 Portage

Monitoring nesting and roosting chimneys outside the NRMP period: We may look to blitz one or two towns, Souris and Manitou for sure. We will send dates out ahead of time for these events. We are also keen to collect data from new sites, and breeding success data. We will send updates on these things throughout the season.

Monitoring New Projects @ Assiniboine Park and in Wolesley: We have a new tower going up imminently in the zoo (viewable from the parking lot), and a fake chimney at the Old Grace Hospital site in Wolesley. These projects both need volunteers, to try note the first ever swift entrances in artificial habitat in Manitoba. We are keen to recruit volunteers to spend some time with each one in mid to late May and throughout the season if possible.
Tracking Down Swifts in New Communities Across Manitoba: There are several towns in Manitoba with suitable chimneys, and potential habitat. It would be wonderful if we can find folk to look out for swifts in the places on the map below. Priority towns to check, with no dedicated volunteer currently are:
1. Minnedosa
2. Neepawa
3. Erickson
4. Baldur
5. Benito
6. Crystal City
7. Emerson
8. Dunrea
9. Virden
10. Ste Rose du Lac

Click here for a map of the sites.

Finally, we have some fantastic looking lanyards with MCSI Volunteer and business cards to hand out to any enquiring folk you may meet. This will mean that volunteers will now be ‘official’ when doing Chimney Swift monitoring. If you would like one, please drop us a line (email or phone).

As Barb Stewart says, ‘fasten your seatbelt’! It’s not going to be long now before Chimney Swifts begin returning to Manitoba.

For more information, or to volunteer for any of the above, please contact Tim Poole, mbchimneyswift@gmail.com or 204 943-9029

Tim and Frank on behalf of the MCSI Committee (Ken De Smet, Christian Artuso, Ron Bazin, Lewis Cocks, Nicole Firlotte, Neil Butchard and Rob and Barb Stewart)

Monitoring in 2018: Part Four

Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Monitoring 2018 – Part 4, Tracking Down Swifts in New Communities Across Manitoba

In 2017, Marshall Birch, a former summer student with the Manitoba IBA Program, completed a GIS project with MCSI. For anyone not familiar with GIS, it stands for Geographical Information Systems. These are incredibly powerful computer modelling programs, and among their many uses, can be used to map information and use that information to build predictive models based on the information provided. In this case, Marshall was able to create a predictive model for Chimney Swift habitat in Manitoba. As part of his model, he estimated, based habitat and land-use information, where we might find Chimney Swifts in the Province of Manitoba. If anyone is interested, his report is posted on our website at

http://www.mbchimneyswift.com/Documents/Birch_FinalReport_CHSW.pdf

Ahead of the new season, Lynnea Parker, who is now working as an intern on bird projects with Nature Manitoba, has looked over the list of possible sites, and tried to work out which ones have potential for swift habitat (suitable chimneys). Marshall’s model could predict whether towns and cities met certain criteria, such as proximity to certain habitats, age of settlement and even in some cases, spraying of insecticide, but it could not know whether a settlement had suitable chimneys. Lynnea based her search on a few resources such as the excellent Manitoba Historical Society website and Google Streetview. She came up with a rudimentary system of high likelihood (meaning there are a few good looking chimneys), through to very unlikely (meaning there were no obvious chimneys). You can see the list of towns in the attached – and by clicking the link where we mapped them – https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bgLd46-nzSCQYRH-V44QHLBWUH3I_RnT&usp=sharing

Check out the list of potential sites at

http://www.mbchimneyswift.com/Documents/Marshall_Predictive_Towns_Model_Summary.pdf

In a few cases, we have ground-truthed some of these settlements, and we were delighted to find that the search by Lynnea appeared to correspond well with what was present on the ground,i.e. there were suitable chimneys. However, what we would love to do is ground truth the model now, and see if there are swifts in many of these towns that Marshall’s project predicted.

The challenge we are therefore setting to Manitoba’s birding community is to get out and look when you are out and about. For example, if you have a cottage near Pelican Lake, then would it be possible to take an evening stroll in Dunrea or Ninette to look for swifts? Or if you are on a birding trip to Riding Mountain, rather than stop in on the excellent Wasagaming sites, maybe check out Erickson instead. And why not take an evening stroll in Lockport with an ice cream and look for some swifts? In Morden, it’s about time someone sat out at the Pembina Arts Centre and determined once and for all if swifts are using that site.

If you are interested in checking one or more of the towns on the map, then please let us know!

– Tim Poole for the MCSI team

Monitoring in 2018: Part Three

Monitors Needed for New Habitat at Assiniboine Park Zoo and in the Wolseley area

Old Grace Tower in Wolseley (prior to move)

The Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative are delighted to be supporting two exciting new habitat projects in Winnipeg this summer. Both of these projects are rooted in the decision in 2014 to demolish the Old Grace Hospital and the large chimney, which was also habitat for Chimney Swifts. In the summer of 2015, a tower was placed on the old site, but unfortunately the tower was constructed late in the year and did not attract swifts.

In 2016 and 2017, the tower was moved as construction began on the Old Grace Housing Cooperative. As mitigation for the destruction of the original chimney, the Housing Coop have constructed a false chimney on the building and we need to monitor this site in 2018 for activities by swifts. This will be the first ever ‘faux’ chimney in Manitoba.

Permanent Tower at Old Grace site (taken last summer)

The original tower now resides at the Assiniboine Park Zoo and will be in position by the beginning of May, and ahead of the swifts returning. The tower can be seen from the parking lot by the old entrance.

Here is the crux – we need lots of help, as we would like to get as many days of monitoring covered on both these projects as possible. This would primarily be required during the roosting hour (half an hour either side of sundown). If you are able to help at any time from May 20th onwards, please contact Tim Poole at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com, indicating when you might be available. We will then set up a monitoring timetable for both these projects

–Tim Poole
Habitat Stewardship and Outreach Coordinator
Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative
mbchimneyswift.ca

Monitoring in 2018: Part Two

Monitoring Blog Part 2 – Monitoring nesting and roosting chimneys outside the NRMP period

In part 2 of our series of blogs on monitoring opportunities with MCSI in 2018, we are going to give a bit more information on doing other monitoring that you can do outside of the NRMP nights.

In 2017, MCSI volunteers managed to watch 55 sites during the NRMP evenings. This however does not show the full story. In total, over 150 chimneys were monitored throughout the season. Some of these chimneys were watched during the day, some on an evening, and some of them were really just casual drop-ins. What we really have seen though is a remarkable volunteer effort to look out for swifts.

So how would we go about watching an additional 100 chimneys? Here are some suggestions.

1. Single Night Town Blitzes

There are some towns with dedicated volunteers, but there are others with no volunteers. For example, Matt has been watching Carman swifts for a number of years, and has been assisted in recent years by Rhonda. Carman is well watched. But what about Manitou? What about Morden? These are relatively new towns for swifts, and maybe we need to adopt a new approach to monitoring the potential chimneys. One option is for a group from elsewhere in the province to descend on these towns for an evening of swift-watching, driven by an MCSI Coordinator. So in 2018 we will try for some swift blitz nights in Manitou, Souris, and possibly smaller ones in Morden and La Salle. Of course, if anyone knows of someone who could do monitoring in any of these places, then please let us know!

There are areas of Winnipeg which need more coverage. St Boniface, St Vital and Osborne Village come to mind for starters. A similar approach in these areas might also work.

Of course, if you are interested in any of the above places for monitoring, then please let us know via the usual channels.

2. Multiple site daytime trips

Winnipeg volunteer, John Hays, has made a habit in the past couple of years of sleuthing out new sites. Much of his dedicated method involves watching chimneys for breeding swifts during the day. These sites are often new sites which he has found on his travels around the downtown area. He spends around 20 minutes at each site watching for an entry, this being the time lapse expected between feeding visits by adult birds. He then moves on. By doing this, John has managed to find multiple new sites in South Point Douglas and the City Centre. Monitoring in this way would be ideal in an area like Osborne Village in Winnipeg, which has a high concentration of chimneys in a small area.

3. Roost Monitoring

Manitoba has 3 larger Chimney Swift roosts, and it is always worth a trip to see the more spectacular entries of several dozen swifts. Why not get involved in counting these roosts on non-NRMP evenings? MCSI researchers have been analysing the data generated from these three roosts to try to increase our working knowledge of the actions of Manitoba’s swifts.

4. Watch another chimney

Most volunteers have their favoured chimney for monitoring, and we really appreciate them being watched during the core NRMP evenings. After this monitoring is finished, why not check out another chimney in your local area? Gord and the Portage swifters have managed to build up a detailed picture in the Portage la Prairie by checking different sites throughout the season. If you would like additional chimneys to watch later in the season, we would be delighted to find a site for you.

5. Catching those fledged chicks

For some, watching throughout the season has its reward when you see the signs of fledged swifts making their way in and out of the chimney. In 2017, Margaret and Millie recorded the latest known fledging date ever recorded in Manitoba, when their swifts were practicing entries and exits in late August. If you wish to know more about how to identify recently fledged swifts, then please let us know.

This is just a flavour of what you can do – or even better, find other people to do! If you would like to find out more about any of the above suggestions, then please let us know.

In our next blog, we will brief volunteers about a couple of exciting new projects in Winnipeg, and outline how we would need help with these in 2018.

– Tim, Frank, etc….

MCSI Annual Monitoring Program 2018 – The National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP)

What is the NRMP?

Since 2013, our core volunteer monitoring participatory program has been via the National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP). The NRMP was initiated by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in Quebec. The idea is that volunteers operate across provinces, monitoring roost chimneys on 4 set dates.

According to the methodology, a roost is 4 or more swifts recorded entering a chimney during the 30 minute period either side of sundown. We report these results to ECCC. Although many of our chimneys do not support a roost of 4 swifts, we still encourage volunteers to monitor as their chimneys during this period. The information we are generating from all our chimneys is building up an impressive picture of Chimney Swift distribution and behaviour in Manitoba. This IS critical information, so even if your chimney does not support larger numbers of swifts, your data is still very useful and very, very appreciated by MCSI.

When is it taking place in 2018?

Each monitoring period begins one hour before sundown and end usually 30 minutes afterwards, unless in those rare cases, the swifts remain outside the chimney after this period. In 2018, these dates are set as:

May 23rd
May 27th
May 31st
June 4th

What happened in 2017?

In 2018, MCSI will continue to support this program. In 2017, we did so by monitoring 55 sites in 11 communities in Manitoba, a phenomenal effort! You can look at our results at https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/Documents/NRMP20132017.pdf. For those interested in seeing how this fits in with the national picture, here are the results of the program, kindly provided by Céline Maurice at ECCC, and including results from BSC’s Maritime and Ontario Swiftwatch programs.

*: Data source: Bird Studies Canada, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative, Environment and Climate change Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service
Data cannot be published without the agreement of these three organizations involved in data collection
Maximum number of swifts counted
http://www.mbchimneyswift.ca/index.html
http://www.oiseauxcanada.org/volunteer/ai/chsw/?lang=EN&targetpg=chswhelp
http://www.birdscanada.org/volunteer/ai/chsw/index.jsp?targetpg=chswabout

Data compiled by the Canadian Wildlife Service, Quebec Region, November 27, 2017

How and where can I get involved?

Turning to which roosts will need monitoring, we have 21 NRMP-qualified roosts on our databases. This means that 21 chimneys have previously supported 4 or more swifts during the NRMP survey. We have mapped them on Google, below, but for those who do not wish to work through that, here is a list of all the roosts, with the volunteer(s) we have assigned to this site in brackets. If you are unable to continue to monitor the chimney, if you let us know, we will endeavour to find a new volunteer to cover the site.

Here is the list:

Brandon – Orange Block (Margaret and Millie)
Dauphin – Main Street (Ken and Jan)
La Broquerie – Saint Joachim Church (David)
Otterburne – Providence (Frank and Jacquie, BUT, if any local volunteers can be found, please let us know)
Portage la Prairie – various, United Church and Victoria School (Gord)
Saint-Francois-Xavier – Michelle and Mike Tumber
Saint-Jean-Baptiste – Church (Luc)
Selkirk – Large stack (Selkirk Birdwatchers)
Souris – Murphy’s: An Irish Legacy (NO VOLUNTEER)
Steinbach – Bethesda Hospital (Keelie)
Winnipeg (City Centre) – 442 William (NO VOLUNTEER)
Winnipeg (City Centre) – 303 Assiniboine Avenue (John)
Winnipeg (Fort Garry) – Pembina Flag Shop (Badal)
Winnipeg (Fort Rouge) – 915 Corydon (Summer)
Winnipeg (Fort Rouge) – 517 Beresford (NO VOLUNTEER)
Winnipeg (Fort Rouge) – 321 Stradbrook (NO VOLUNTEER)
Winnipeg (River Heights) – 378 Academy (Kelly-Anne)
Winnipeg (St James) – Assiniboine School (Adolf, David, Jake, Anna, Beth)
Winnipeg (St James) – Moorgate Apartments, 2187 Portage (NO VOLUNTEER)
Winnipeg (St James) – Silver Heights Apartments, 2235 Portage (Valerie and Bob)
Winnipeg (St James) – St Ann’s Catholic Church, Hampton (Jenny)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=11jFUfg00up7j883K3mEVHfOPrag&usp=sharing

Of course there may be new roosts out there. We had a new fall roost in Winnipeg in 2017, which has been added to the list above. We aim to begin monitoring this site earlier than the set dates in 2018, to see if this is also a spring roost. I also have a suspicion about a site in the Wildwood area of Winnipeg if anyone is interested!

It would be amazing if we can keep the level of monitoring up in 2017. So please let us know if you are willing to take on a new site, and we will find a suitable site for you.

— Tim Poole