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
