Author: mbchimneyswift@gmail.com

Chimney Swift Sightings and Priority Chimneys

They are arriving! Every day we are receiving sightings of Chimney Swifts in Manitoba. Our first report of swifts in the province was by Luc Blanchette in St Jean Baptiste on the afternoon of May 11th, shortly followed by Gerald Machnee in Selkirk that same evening.

Since then, I have had Chimney Swift reports in the Winnipeg neighbourhoods of River Heights, Tuxedo, St Vital, Wolseley, Island Lakes, North Kildonan and Fort Rouge. Thank you to Barbara and Phil Barnett, Nicole Firlotte, Randy Mooi, Tim Poole, Rudolf Koes and Christie McDonald for the reports. The Assiniboine Park Zoo staff have also seen Chimney Swifts overhead this past weekend.

Outside of Winnipeg, I also saw three swifts in the air while I was out doing last minute clean-out checks in St Adolphe last week and Dave Carleson has also seen Chimney Swifts in Dominion City.

With the swifts arriving MCSI is still looking for people to monitor some of our “priority chimneys” this year. The priority chimneys are chimneys that either 1) have not been watched since 2019 or 2) have not hosted swifts since 2019.

Monitoring of these priority chimneys is key as under the proposed Chimney Swift Recovery Strategy, chimneys that are in use by Chimney Swifts, or that have been in use by Chimney Swifts in the last three years will be protected as residences. Some of our priority chimneys already have volunteer monitors signed up – thank you!

We are still looking for volunteer monitors for the following priority chimneys outside of Winnipeg:

• Pembina Hills Arts Centre, Morden
• Harvest Moon Learning Centre, Clearwater
• St Andrews United Church, Manitou
• MTS Building, Portage la Prairie
• Trinity United Church, Portage la Prairie
• Victoria School (Red River College), Portage la Prairie
• Olina’s Jewels, Portage la Prairie
• Lagasse’s Studio of Fine Art, Souris
• St. Paul’s United Church, Souris
• Hillcrest Museum, Souris
• Kowalchuk’s Funeral Home, Souris
• Chocolate Shop Café, Souris
• Rock Shop, Souris
• Prairie Zen Massage, Stonewall
• VIA Rail Station, The Pas

And in Winnipeg we are looking for volunteers for the following sites:

• Brink’s Canada, City Centre
• Sky Bridge Americas, City Centre
• District Condominiums, City Centre
• Newcastle Apartments, City Centre
• Nutty Club Food Club, City Centre
• Victoria Court, City Centre
• Villa Fel Rodriguez, City Centre
• Western Paperbox Company Ltd. Warehouse, City Centre
• Bardal Funeral Home, City Centre
• Nejmark Architects, City Centre
• Gregg Building, City Centre
• Living Gospel Church, City Centre
• Immigrant Centre Building, City Centre
• House of Hesed, City Centre
• The Old Market Autonomous Zone, City Centre
• St John’s Cathedral, North End
• Ukrainian National Federation, North End
• Valhalla Gardens, North Kildonan
• Vita Foam, South Point Douglas
• Restmore Bedding Co Ltd, South Point Douglas
• New Silver Heights Apartments, St James
• King’s Theatre, St James
• Viscount Apartments, St James
• Essex House Apartments, St James
• Elan Designs and Upholstery, West End
• John Howard Society, West End
• Kildonan United Church, West Kildonan
• The Lothian Block Apartments, Wolseley

If you are someone who likes to move between sites (rather than watch at one site each week) then monitoring a different priority chimney each week might be the role for you! If you’d like to chose one priority chimney and monitor it each week, we can also set that up for you as well.

We start our official monitoring period next week (Wednesday, May 25^th), so I am looking forward to see what everyone observes! If you would like to start watching swifts earlier than that feel free to send your observations to mbchimneyswift@gmail.com.

• Amanda

A SOGGY VARIATION OF NO-MOW MAY IS LINKED TO CHIMNEY SWIFT MONITORING! WHO KNEW?

In our area of the Red River valley south of Winnipeg, as is the case in many other locations in Manitoba this spring, there will be a huge variation of the no-mow May routine. Roads and yards and fields are underwater. We are happy to have the newly arrived Canada Geese pluck the sprouting grass from the exposed portions of our flood-protected hill. Sadly, farmers dealing with flood waters inundating fields face a no-sow spring. While the current boating season interferes with our personal start to the ‘22 Chimney Swift monitoring season, we’re lucky to have Amanda & Tim & Jo step in and help out with the spring to-do list in St Adolphe and Lower Fort Garry.

For all of you mobile monitors, particularly those of you who will track nest sites, here’s the check list to get underway (not all points are applicable to all folks):

1. Ensure chimneys are sealed except for the top opening. Chimney Swifts fall victim to light seduction – they are drawn out of chimney shafts by daylight seen through old, exposed duct work or open bottomed hearths etc.
2. Close your damper(s); keep a screen in place in front of the fire box.
3. Block/plug any gaps or cracks in the chimney masonry.
4. Seal and secure any openings e.g., face plates for old duct work.
5. Block access to ash pits located below the fire box.
6. Close doors to the cleanout trap(s).

• Familiarize yourself with the MCSI protocols for monitoring and save the dates that Amanda has sent you for the NRMP and MCSI programs  https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/news-and-posts/ ; May 3^rd – 2022 Monitoring on the Horizon.

• Consider extra monitoring to establish arrival dates. To know when the Chimney Swifts arrive, we need to know when they aren’t here! Those precious “0”, zero, nada, naught, zip, zilch counts from early-days monitoring helps establish the absence of swifts. It is often cold and usually tedious monitoring to see nothing, but it is all so valuable to narrow the window of true arrival.

• Arriving Chimney Swifts will feed locally and rest for the night in chimneys – at roost and nest sites. Depending on arrival dates, weather conditions, and insect availability etc., a breeding pair laying claim to a nest site may only use the chimney for roosting for a few days or weeks (e.g., in the spring of 2021, St. Adolphe swifts arrived May 14^th but did not nest build until May 27-June 4).

• Nest building is defined by daytime use (entries/exits).

Once your reports of arriving Chimney Swifts start flowing in to Amanda, we’ll review behaviour seen during the nest building stage. Good luck in the days and nights ahead,

— Barb

Although it may not feel like it, spring is (SLOWLY) on its way, and so are the Chimney Swifts. The Chimney Swifts are currently stalled just a bit south of us with the northern-most edge of their migration just reaching into Minnesota. The northern states have been facing similar weather challenges to Manitoba, so the weather likely has not helped! That being said, the majority of “our” Chimney Swifts in Manitoba typically don’t arrive until mid to late May, regardless of our spring weather. When you start seeing Chimney Swifts please report to MCSI, we’d love to know!

Chimney Swift sightings in April 2022 from eBird.org. Each purple rectangle is at least one Chimney Swift.

With the 2022 Chimney Swift season approaching, we’ve been working to finalize our monitoring season plans. For most sites monitoring will start on Wednesday, May 25^th and continue on Wednesday each week until June 22^nd(rain dates are Thursdays each week). By the end of June, we should be able to determine if the Chimney Swifts have made a nesting attempt in a monitored chimney, or if they were using the chimney as a roost site only.

With the federal Chimney Swift Recovery Strategy (currently in draft form) coming out in 2022, there is an opportunity to protect the chimneys used by Chimney Swifts (called “residences”). For a chimney to be a residence it has to have hosted Chimney Swifts at least once in the last three years. As a result, we have combed our database and made a list of sites that either have not been monitored for the past three years, or have not had a swift spotted in three years. These sites are a high priority for monitoring this year. If you are interested in being able to make a big difference in habitat protection for Chimney Swifts, please consider monitoring one of the priority sites! Priority sites are in the towns, and Winnipeg neighbourhoods listed below. Contact the MCSI coordinator (Amanda) at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com for specific locations.

• Lac du Bonnet                                                                   
• Manitou
• Morden                                                                              
• Portage la Prairie
• Souris                                                                                 
• Stonewall
• The Pas                                                                               
• Winnipeg – City Centre
• Winnipeg – East and West Kildonan              
• Winnipeg – Fort Garry
• Winnipeg – Fort Rouge                                                   
• Winnipeg- South Point Douglas
• Winnipeg – St James                                                        
• Winnipeg – West End

For the larger roost chimneys, we will also be conducting the National Roost Monitoring Protocol (NRMP). This protocol is followed throughout Canada, where the Canadian Wildlife Service collects data on roosting chimneys that host four or more Chimney Swifts. This monitoring happens every four days for a two-week period (rather than once a week). NRMP nights are on May 25^th, May 29^th, June 2^nd and June 6^th. For NRMP nights we are particularly looking for volunteers to watch the sites below:

• Carman Memorial Hall, Carman
• St Paul’s United Church, Souris
• 5000 Crescent Road West (Rufus Prince Building), Portage la Prairie
• Ecole Assiniboine School in St James, Winnipeg
• 2187 Portage Avenue (Moorgate Apartments) in St James, Winnipeg
• 424 River Avenue (River Manor Apartment) in Fort Rouge, Winnipeg

NRMP nights and the MCSI nights follow the same monitoring protocol (other than the dates the monitoring takes place) as well as the same data sheet. We ask that volunteers watch their site starting from 60 minutes before sunset until 30 minutes after sunset (90 minutes total). In that time volunteers record numbers of swifts seen in the air, as well as the time and number of swifts that enter and exit the chimney. For more details on how we monitor swifts, and the datasheet we use, you can find our 2022 protocol and data sheet at the following links:

2022 Monitoring Protocol (pdf)

2022 Data Sheet (pdf)

2022 Data Sheet (Word)

If you are looking for a chimney to monitor in your neighbourhood or are willing to travel to a site, send an email to myself (Amanda) at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com and I would be happy match you with a monitoring site. We have more chimneys than monitors each year, and we’d love to have you join our effort to help the Chimney Swift.

• Amanda

With the spring arrival of the Chimney Swifts approaching, MCSI presents our last (but certainly not least), Chimney Swift Champion of 2021-2022 – Shawn Charlebois!

Back in summer 2020 one of our Steering Committee members, Ken De Smet was in Swan River. While out and about on Main St, Ken just happened to see a Chimney Swift enter a chimney in a commercial building! This incidental sighting is the first sighting of Chimney Swifts we’ve had in Swan River, and the second most northern sighting in MCSI history (the other was in The Pas). We notice that the chimney could use some repair, so we went about tracking down the owner of the chimney who turned out to be Shawn.

Shawn was pleased to know that the chimney was supporting habitat for a threatened species and was enthusiastic that we could both repair the chimney and protect bird habitat at the same time! Since then, he has distributed various Chimney Swift factsheets for outreach around Swan River. Additionally, Shawn is the first recipient of our new outdoor Chimney Swift Champions sign. This sign is able to be mounted outside on buildings, both to highlight the work of our Chimney Swift Champions and provide a public outreach opportunity right at the site of chimney.

MCSI sends a big thank you to Shawn for providing Chimney Swift habitat and outreach opportunities in Swan River!

• Amanda Shave

On Wednesday, March 23^rd Amanda presented MCSI’s Chimney Swift Champion plaque to staff at the Smith Agency, a Winnipeg-based property management company. The plaque was to recognize their work in the conservation of Chimney Swift habitat on an apartment roof in downtown Winnipeg.

Stuart Plant of the Smith Agency accepting the MCSI Chimney Swift Champion award.

The Smith Agency operates several buildings that are home to Chimney Swifts in Manitoba. Of particular interest in the summer of 2021 was the Scarsdale Apartments at 71 Kennedy Street. The chimney on this building has been on MCSI’s radar for Chimney Swifts for more than a decade.

In spring 2021 we a volunteer noted that that the chimney on the Scarsdale Apartments had a pest cage installed. Once the Smith Agency was contacted about a threatened species using that chimney, they acted very quickly to ensure habitat was available for the swifts! In many cases work such as capping or caging of chimneys happens with management and/or contractors simply not aware that swifts are using the chimney. Once notified Smith Agency were able to mitigate the impact to the Chimney Swifts by opening a second chimney on the building, which was previously inaccessible to the swifts due to a pest cage. MCSI monitored the site after the mitigation in June and swifts were seen entering and exiting the newly un-caged chimney during the day (possibly nesting), and also roosting at night. A great success story.

 A big thank you the Smith Agency for their “swift” response and environmental stewardship for the Chimney Swift!

• Amanda

During our 2021 Chimney Swift monitoring season blog updates you may have been following the saga of the Assiniboine Park Zoo tower versus the Pileated Woodpecker(s).

This tower was originally erected in 2015 at the site of the Old Grace Hospital in Wolseley to mitigate the impact on swift habitat when the large chimney was removed. Once the Old Grace Housing Co-op was constructed (with a built-in artificial chimney) the tower was moved to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in 2018. Chimney Swifts seemed to be checking out the tower in the fall of 2019, and moved in the year after, with successful nesting each year since. It is the first successful artificial Chimney Swift tower in Manitoba.

However, we’ve also had a neighbouring bird using the artificial tower, one that the tower was not designed for. Large holes (fist-size or larger) were being pecked into the chimney by Pileated Woodpecker(s). The artificial chimney is a large, brown, hollow, wooden structure, so it is not surprising in hindsight that it was attractive to the woodpeckers. We are not sure if they use it as a good place for territorial drumming, are looking for food, or were using the site as a cavity (a woodpecker was seen exiting from a hole once by a Chimney Swift monitor in 2021) or a mixture of the above.

The culprit in action! Note the previously applied patch to a second hole just to the right of the Pileated Woodpecker and the current cavity. Photo by Evelien de Greef.

While we would love to provide habitat to all birds, the tower was not designed for this purpose, and the inside of the tower was not made to be exposed to the elements. Zoo staff tried repairing the holes with no success, as the woodpecker would just make new ones. At one point we were up to 4-5 large holes, with no end to the woodpecker’s interest! As anyone who has had woodpeckers interested in their house siding, fences, etc. can attest, there are no full proof deterrents.

Enter the artificial Chimney Swift towers that were built at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre as mitigation for removal of Chimney Swift habitat. These artificial towers were modeled after the Assiniboine Park Zoo tower, but clad in metal siding. Having seen the success of these new towers – an idea was formed to replace the wood siding of the Zoo tower, with this metal cladding!

Through the MCSI’s Habitat Stewardship Program and Bluebird Fund and Assiniboine Park Zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Fund we were able to come up with the funding to replace the siding this spring. With the Zoo managing the logistical side, snow was cleared away from the tower in the first week of March, with contractors removing the old wood cladding and replacing it with metal cladding in the last two weeks. The Chimney Swift home makeover is now complete and look at the difference! With this renovation we expect the tower to provide valuable nesting habitat for many years to come.

Assiniboine Park Zoo artificial chimney before (left) and after (right) recladding. Photos provided by Assiniboine Park Zoo.

We timed the construction to happen before the swifts came back, of course, but to also take place before the Pileated Woodpecker nesting season. With the abundance of trees available to them in Assiniboine Park, we are confident that they can find a new and improved home in the neighbourhood as well.

— Amanda

February 2^nd, 2022 is World Wetlands Day! While wetlands are not our usual topic on the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative blog. I thought that this important habitat and food source for Chimney Swifts should get a little time in the spotlight.

We know that Chimney Swifts need their masonry chimneys for roosting and nesting, but another important requirement is the insects that form the diet of the Chimney Swift. Chimney Swifts are aerial insectivores, a group of birds that are classified together because they all catch and eat insects while on the wing. Other aerial insectivores include Purple Martins and other types of swallows.

While not all the insects that Chimney Swifts eat come from wetlands, many of the insects that fly as adults have aquatic larval stages. Most insects with aquatic larval stages want still, shallow, warm water. This can be as simple as an old tire in a yard that a mosquito lays eggs in, but other insects can use wetlands. Insects with aquatic larval stages that may be eaten by Swifts include the Dragonfly and Damselfly families (Spreadwings, Pond Damsels, Darners, Clubtails, Emeralds and Skimmers), Mosquitos, Midges, Mayflies, Caddisflies and Crane flies. Chimney Swifts also need a lot of this food, eating over 1,000 mosquitoes and other flying insects per day!

Wetlands come in a variety of forms and can be temporary (often from our spring snowmelt, drying up over the summer) or permanent. We have several urban wetlands in Manitoba that you may know including in Fort Whyte Alive, Assiniboine Forest, or Bois-des-Esprits in Winnipeg; the Riverbank Discovery Centre in Brandon; or areas of Crescent Park in Portage la Prairie to name a few. Additionally, using naturalized wetlands is becoming more common in new residential developments, rather than the traditional retention pond surrounded by grass. Urban wetlands are often small and locally known – what urban wetlands are around you?

Insects that hatch in wetlands, or use water as part of their life stages, do not always have to stick near water as adults either! Home range studies of a variety of dragonflies showed travel distances from their natal sites to their adult home ranges between 481 -1196 meters, and home ranges of between 5-50 hectares (both measurements depend on the species with a lot of variation).

Working to monitor Chimneys Swifts, and to protect and repair chimneys is key for Swift populations – and gives us a really good target to work towards. However, like many other Species at Risk, Chimney Swifts are threatened due to a number of factors that are interrelated. By increasing our knowledge about and conserving wetlands, we can help our local Chimney Swifts have a successful nesting season with us!

• Amanda

The Winter Solstice is upon us. The longest night of the year will now give way to increasing daylight hours. From this turning point, we will eventually herald the spring arrival of our Chimney Swifts. 

There is much to look forward to. We look forward to having you join us in 2022 for an action packed season of monitoring, outreach, habitat restoration, and research. 

As you celebrate the festive season in your traditional way, all of us at MCSI wish you the best of health, happiness, and fellowship. Remember, “the only constant in life is change” (Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher)…so we will navigate the changes and challenges ahead, one brightening day at a time.

All the best from the MCSI team,

Christian Artuso (Co-Chair), Ron Bazin, Laura Burns, Neil Butchard, Lewis Cocks, Jack Dubois, Ken DeSmet, Nicole Firlotte, Frank Machovec (Webmaster), Tim Poole (Co-Chair), Amanda Shave (Co-ordinator), Barb Stewart, Rob Stewart, Joanne Tuckwell, Ashleigh Westphal.

As we head into the winter season in the northern hemisphere, the Chimney Swifts are miles away enjoying the Amazonian heat! A short tour around the Chimney Swift wintering range show temperatures of 31^oC in Bogota, Columbia; 12^oC in Quito, Ecuador; 21^oC in Lima, Peru and 24^oC in Manaus, Brazil!

But before we start pining for the warm temperatures that our “snow birds” are experiencing – the monitoring summaries for 2021 are now up on the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative webpage!

This year both the National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP) and Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative (MCSI) monitoring nights were held. Prior to 2020, all sites in Manitoba were monitored under NRMP only, and that data was then submitted to the Canadian Wildlife Service (in addition to be using in-house at MCSI). However, the “official” NRMP protocol only used the information on roost sites with more than three swifts.

The prevailing thought about Chimney Swift spring migration is that they return to large roost sites first before heading out to their nesting chimneys. From our monitoring over the years, we think that in Manitoba some swifts go to the big roost sites and then head to the nesting chimneys – but other swifts just head straight to the nesting chimneys. This may be because we are on the northern edge of the Chimney Swift breeding range, and so the breeding season is so short that Manitoba swifts need to hop right to it to be able to raise young in such a short time period!

As most of our sites historically have three or fewer birds, we decided to switch things up this year. The big roost sites (>3 birds) still ran the usual NRMP monitoring schedule, but our smaller roost sites/ nest sites were monitored once a week for a period of around 30 days. This longer monitoring window allowed us to see 1) if swifts were using a site and 2) if swifts looked like they were setting up for a nesting attempt. This was our first year running the dual monitoring programs and we think it went quite well!

We also had volunteers who continued monitoring throughout the nesting period. From their work we were able to determine nesting success at sites in St Adolphe, Selkirk, Winnipeg, Dauphin, La Broquerie, and Lockport! The most exciting success was the fledging of young at the Tower 4 (the stack replacement tower) at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre! So great to have this result in the first year of the tower’s operation!

This year we monitored at 170 sites in 23 communities. Some of these sites had no Chimney Swifts, some sites had Chimney Swifts using chimneys, while others still had Chimney Swifts around but more searching is required to find where in the neighbourhood they are nesting/ roosting. All of this is thanks to you, our volunteers – all 80+ of you!

As always, the MCSI Roost and Nest Site database is available on the “Monitoring Results” page of the website. This document summarizes the high counts of Chimneys Swifts at sites, if a site was used for nesting or roosting, and successes/ failures of nest (if known).

The MCSI Monitoring Nights and NRMP results are also available on the “Monitoring Results” page of the website. This table gives a snap-shot into Chimney Swift numbers at each site over an approximately 30-day period.

• Amanda

(Text from Nature Manitoba News, November 2021)

Chimney Swift Champion awards are given out each year by our partner program, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative. The awards recognize organizations, businesses or individuals who are working towards Chimney Swift conservation. This work can be done many different ways, from protecting Chimney Swift habitat to supporting education on swifts.

This year’s award recipients are:

The Watson Art Centre in Dauphin, Manitoba – The centre has been an excellent host for nesting Chimney Swifts for many years. Our volunteers in Dauphin are able to work with centre staff to monitor the swifts each spring and summer as they use the chimney.

Joanne Tuckwell – Joanne works for Parks Canada and has been instrumental in our work with the Chimney Swifts at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site. This year Joanne took up the role as a volunteer chimney sweep and gave the chimney a good scrub to help remove the creosote buildup on the chimney that can cause the nests to detach from the wall and fall.