Happy Friday!
I hope you are staying warm and dry. The weather continues to keep us guessing… Over here in Winnipeg, there’s been a lot of rain (which has occasionally turned into hail). I received a photo from someone in Brandon today of their yard covered in snow! So yep, it’s been pretty all over the place. It can be difficult to predict the impact of weather like this on swift behaviour and thus, the monitoring. Will the swifts all enter their chimneys very early, or will they try to make up for lost feeding time earlier in the day and stay out late? Hard to know!
Wednesday May 22 was the first night of the National Chimney Swift Roost Survey Protocol (a 4-night national monitoring effort which focuses on monitoring roost sites). It sounds like across the province, there was an unpredictable mix of rainy/cloudy/windy/hail/etc.
Dauphin seems to have gotten some of the worst of it – cold and overcast, with rain and hail. Ken, Jan and Pat braved the elements but saw zero swifts. As Ken described, “as a matter of fact, we didn’t see any birds, not even pigeons”. Yikes!
Michele watched the St. Francois Xavier R.C. Church. She saw 1 entry at 9:08pm, 2 entries followed by 1 exit at 9:13pm, another exit at 9:15pm, and finally 2 entries at 9:19pm. Overall, 3 swifts were confirmed in the chimney.
In Selkirk, Nia and Linda saw 2 entries into the Yellow Brick chimney and 2 entries into T04. Robert watched the Infirmary chimney and did not see any entries. Gerald watched the apartment building at 367 Main St and did not see any swift activity at all. Patti and Dennis watched T02 and saw 1 entry at 9:25pm followed by 1 more entry at 9:35pm. Aynsley saw 1 entry into T01 and 1 entry into T03.
Frank watched the 2 chimneys at the St Joachim Church in La Broquerie. A group of 3 swifts arrived, 1 of which entered the small chimney at 8:35pm and 2 of which entered the large chimney a few minutes later. A 4th swift arrived and entered the small chimney at 9:18pm. A 5th swift arrived at 9:45pm and entered the large chimney. By the end of the session, 3 swifts had entered the large chimney and 2 swifts had entered the small chimney.
Blaire watched the St Norbert Behavioural Health Foundation building in St. Norbert, and saw 2 swifts enter at 8:58pm.
As usual, Barb has been keeping an eye on the chimneys in St. Adolphe. On May 22, she did a morning 75 minute monitoring session at the Club Amical (which has 2 chimneys). She saw up to 6 swifts at once, all busy feeding. 45 minutes into her monitoring session, she saw 1 swift leave the SE Club Amical chimney. Later that evening but before roosting hour, Barb monitored the Church. She saw 2 exits (7:08pm and 7:09pm) which suggests that a pair have claimed this chimney as a nest site for the year.
Over to Winnipeg now. Barb and Phil watched 424 River Ave, which is consistently used by large numbers of swifts. For most of their monitoring session, swifts were circling high and not near the chimney, so they were starting to doubt if the swifts were going to use this chimney as a roost. However, between 9:27pm and 9:39pm, 126 swifts entered the chimney. This roost site is still up and running!
Tim watched the Fernwood Apartments, which is a new roost site that was discovered last fall. A bit surprisingly, he saw no swift activity at all.
Carl and Joyce watched the chimney at the Old Grace Housing Co-op. While they did see 3 swifts flying in the area, these swifts were last seen around 9:38pm heading straight west and did not enter the chimney.
Beth watched the Assiniboine School, which used to be a roost site used by multiple swifts. While she saw 3 swifts circle over the school yard a few times, they headed north and did not enter the chimney. Beth mentioned that someone else saw a handful of swifts flying around the school on May 21, but they also went north past Portage Avenue.
Linda watched the Moorgate Apartments on Portage Avenue, and saw 2 entries at 9:26pm.
Gwen watched 139 Market Ave. She saw 1 entry at 8:50pm followed by an exit at 8:57pm. At 9:03pm, 2 swifts entered and remained until the end of the monitoring period. Gwen had seen another 7 swifts in the sky but they must be roosting somewhere else.
Jo watched the Assiniboine Park Zoo artificial tower. A group of 3 swifts were flying around but only 2 of them entered the tower, around sunset.
A few other reports from earlier this week:
On May 21, Luc watched the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church. From 9:16pm to 9:35pm, Luc observed 11 entries and 1 exit, for a total of 10 swifts confirmed in the chimney at the end of the session.
I (Marissa) was in southwest MB for a few days this week and checked out some swift sites in Souris. On May 21, I did a roost hour monitoring session at the Hillcrest Museum. There were a group of up to 5 swifts flying in the area, but around 9:20pm a light rain began and the swifts disappeared for the rest of the evening.
On May 21, Gwen noticed 6 swifts in the area over the Curtis Hotel on Henderson Highway. She did not see any entries but hopes to check again from a better vantage point.
Night 2 of the National Chimney Swift Roost Survey Protocol is Sunday, May 26. If you would like to monitor a chimney on this night and want a site to watch, send us an email!
Some reports are still trickling in. Don’t forget to send in your completed datasheets, via email to mbchimneyswift@gmail.com or by mail to 401-63 Albert St, Winnipeg MB, R3B 1G4.
Also, just another quick reminder to both new and returning volunteers to fill out volunteer sign-up form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSccnVO2iqF8pDPz68pBJsEfNHnUung0HZ_dsMalcgg4TDIuzA/viewform
Thank you to all of you who monitored this week, despite the unpredictable and difficult weather.
Have a great weekend!
-Marissa
