An excellent Wednesday evening for swift watching was preceded by a week of interesting swift observations. For our update this week, we will being in Portage la Prairie, where Cal, Gord and co, have been maintaining a steady stream of observations. We have missed out on reporting on some of these observations recently (our fault), and so here is an update.- On June 20th, Cal noted 2 entries and an exit in the Trinity United Church
- On June 27th, Cal had no activity at Victoria School, although there were 4 birds in the air.
- On July 18th, Cal and Gord counted 6 entries and 4 exits as a breeding pair busily fed their young in the Trinity United Church. Fantastic!
Around the towns and cities in Manitoba, we head north to Dauphin. Ken and Jan have been doing a fantastic job balancing the 3 chimneys in town, as well as doing some scouting elsewhere (more to come on that later this week). Here is Ken’s report:
‘Well, we were out and observed 2 of the 3 Dauphin chimneys. Each chimney had 1 swift go down with considerable others flying around. At approximately sunset it would seem that all swifts still flying decided it was time to hit the “bricks” and they headed towards the original roost chimney. The chimney was too far away and obscured to actually see and count birds going down but there were no more siting’s after sunset (this is a novelty for Dauphin where the birds tend to stay out well past dark most evenings). There was a storm warning out for thunder storms in our area, no idea if this affected the birds (that is the weather, not the warning as they can not read!).’
Margaret and Millie continue to watch the Brandon chimney and continue to generate some very interesting data. Their busy parent swifts managed a very tidy 13 entries and 11 exits in just one hour around sundown! There is more on this in Barb’s update from St Adolphe which we will post on Friday.
Gerald has been keeping an eye open in Lockport and has managed to find some interesting comings and goings. A late visit on July 15th was still enough to record swifts pop into both chimneys on the new site along the river.
Staying with the Selkirk Birdwatchers, and we had 20, yes a brilliant 20 reports arrive in our inbox this week. Rather than go through each one, we will summarise the most recent report for each site.
- On July 4th, Nia and Linda observed 7 entries and 1 exit at the large stack leaving a total of 6 swifts
- On July 4th, Nia and Linda observed 1 swift enter the yellow brick chimney at the hospital
- On June 13th, Sybil and Ray counted 3 swifts enter the Merchant’s Hotel
- On June 26th, Robert and Donna watched 2 swifts enter the infirmary chimney
- On June 11th, Robert and Donna had 2 entries on the 267 Main Street Apartment
- On June 19th, there was 1 entry at the Lord Selkirk Hotel observed by Gerald
- On July 10th, Nia and Linda counted 3 entries and 1 exit on the southeast chimney at Lower Fort Garry
- On July 10th, Nia and Linda counted 2 swifts entering the southwest chimney at Lower Fort Garr
Back to Wednesday, Frank and Jacquie visited St Norbert and reported as follows:
‘We had 17 entries and 14 exits from the central (and tallest) rear chimney for a maximum of three CHSW in the chimney. We did observe up to five CHSW in the area, though, so there are some late sleepers or residents of another chimney.’
There were confirmed reports from Blaire in spring of birds in the St Norbert Parish Church so we assume that is where our excess birds spent the night.
David in La Broquerie also managed to have an evening out in the sunshine:
‘I did a bit of chimney watching this evening with interesting results – as usual.
I got there a bit late (9.15) and immediately saw an exit. Shortly after I saw 7 in the air on many occasions, 8 a few limes and once 9. After sunset there were 5 entries one after the other into the large chimney, after which I definitely counted 5 in the air!! Then there were 2 entries into the small chimney and later still, one into the large chimney, making 8 entries in total and 2 birds unaccounted for. I stayed until the street lights came on at 10 pm.
I must say they seem to be ‘happier’ in a larger flock now that there are 2 chimneys and this may be an important factor if they are communal birds.’
To Winnipeg, and John has been his usual busy self checking numerous sites across the city in the past week. Here is his summary:
- July 12th, 486 Sherbrook, 1 entry, 1 exit
- July 12th, 583 Ellice, no swifts
- July 15th, 843 Sherbrook, 1 entry and 1 exit
- July 15th, 520 William, 1 entry and 1 exit
- July 15th, 583 Ellice, no swifts
- July 15th, King’s Hotel, no swifts
- July 16th, 515 Waterfront, 3 swifts in air, no use of chimney
Across the city, and Barbara and Phil posted the following nice report on Facebook regarding a visit on Tuesday to the Kaljieb site on St Josephs in St Boniface:
‘We watched this chimney in St. Boniface for 85 minutes yesterday evening. We were excited to see six Chimney Swifts, foraging overhead, entering and exiting the chimney to feed young, and finally 4 coming home to roost at 10:00 pm. It has been suggested this morning that it is probably one breeding pair with two helpers, with the remaining two maybe roosting elsewhere.’
Into St James, Bob and Valerie were delighted to have an active nest site at the Silver Heights Apartments on Portage. Earlier in the week, Tim and Sabinahad a drive-by entry on the apartment next to Carillon Towers. Sabina also noted 6 entries and 2 exits on the Thunderbird Apartment, 1 entry on the Stanley Park Apartments and an incidental 2 entries and 1 exit on the Moorgate. Phew! Squeaking into the report, David sent an update as follows:
‘On June 20 I watched the chimney of the low apt. block just to the east of Carillon Towers for about an hour. The one where one can’t really see the chimney. 2 swifts entered shortly after sunset that night. At least I saw them fly in low and then then go straight down where the chimney is located.
On July 4 Adolf and I monitored the Assiniboine chimney for an hour and between 9:41 and 10:10 we had 81 swifts enter. Usually in 1’s, 2’s or 3’s, except for one group of 22 at 9:56.’
A stop press for Thursday morning, and Garry recorded 3 entries and 3 exits at his site on Watt during a daytime visit.
In Fort Rouge, Tim and his 3 year old daughter, Linnea, have been watching a site on Watt on the way to daycare. On Tuesday they recorded 1 entry and 2 exits and Wednesday morning went one better and had 2 entries and 2 exits. Tim also discovered a new site on Bannatyne, 332, last Friday, with one entry-exit cycle recorded.
This is everything updated for the moment apart from a summary of St Adolphe to come form Barb and a summary of a successful road trip to the south fromTim, Chris and Lynnea. We will also include a little update on progress of where we are with our searches of new towns. These will come over the next couple of days, so keep a look out! Otherwise thank you everyone for keeping your eyes to the skies!–Tim Poole
