News and posts

After the lunchtime thunderstorm in Winnipeg, we are hoping for brighter weather to watch and count swifts this evening. As ever, we will begin one hour ahead of sundown, and go right through to 30 minutes after. If the weather does though make a turn for the worse, and you are threatened by a lightning storm, please act with caution – safety is paramount. We will obviously do the monitoring a day later in these circumstances.

As a little bit of lead-up, we have some more reports from May 30th and the weekend.

Beginning in Selkirk, on the 30th, Robert, Donna and Winona watched the Selkirk Mental Health Centre and counted 10 swifts enter the large stack and 2 enter the yellow brick building. Ray and Sybil have been watching the Merchant’s Hotel. They have now counted 4 swifts enter the main chimney on two occasions, the 28th and 30th. Winona had also counted 4 swifts on the 21st at this location. All seem to be roosting, with no demonstrable evidence of nest building.

Gerald has been watching chimneys in Lower Fort Garry and Lockport. On the 28th he observed 2 swifts using the southeast building at the fort. On the 29th, he watched the two chimneys at the St Andrew’s Lock and Dam Compound in Lockport. There was clearly an active breeding attempt in one of the chimneys, with a pair on site. There was a single swift in the other chimney.

Unfortunately, Cam and Diann are having a quiet few days in Lac du Bonnet:
‘No swifts seen or heard in Lac du Bonnet. Diann had one moment of excitement at Grans bakery when at 20:42 she thought a swift had gone down the chimney, but it turned out to be a swallow had landed on the edge! Several birds did some sneaky flybys but these were also probably swallows which were more numerous and vocal than previous nights.’

Back to Winnipeg. Peter reported from the Hampton Church in St James, observed on the 31st:
‘NO swifts at St. Ann’s RC Church. A nice fly-by of a Nighthawk tonight was reward enough for me.  I heard a couple of others that were either too high … or too low behind the trees … for me to see.  Also, because I was about two blocks away from Assiniboine School, I could watch the birds circle that chimney.’

Kelly-Anne observed a pair using the chimney at 44 Academy on the 30th as well, the first time they had been observed here in 2019.

Francene and her team at the Old Grace Housing Coop are still to see a swift.

Rudolf in East Kildonan reported the following:
‘I spent from 8:55 to 9:40 at the Northdale Shopping Centre. Initially there were at least 8, but probably 10 birds ripping around. At 9:12 two birds entered the chimney at 1010 Brazier together and I did not see them reappear. It must be said that I did not look in that direction constantly, as I was also keeping an eye on other birds and other chimneys. Two to three birds continued to fly over on occasion, but no entries in other chimneys were noted.’

Lynnea and Adam went on a freestyle swift outing on the 31st along Archibald. Having first seen a pair into a new site, the magnificently named Niakwa Park Plaza at 1310 Archibald, they went onto finding a second new site at 223 Archibald, the Archibald Storage Building. 2 entered the chimney on the latter.

Blair took the search for swifts to a new level, discovering a single bird entering the Nelson MacIntyre Collegiate on St Mary’s on the 2nd. This was a significant moment, this being a chimney that was first watched in 2007, yet before this summer, no one had ever recorded use by swifts. 

In Osborne Village, Barbara sent an interesting report from her balcony on Saturday evening:
‘Sitting at my balcony window just now: Between 9:20 and 9:35 : 11 CHSW circling high over Osborne Street bridge.  9 eventually flew east downriver, 2 disappeared just west of us, potentially at Augustine, or the chimney at 395 River, or 94 Roslyn.’

From the same area, Tim  recorded a daytime entry this very morning at 395 River.
That should bring us to date, apart from a short update from Barb in St Adolphe:‘Saturday, I waited until early afternoon to monitor and watched Main St/Brodeur’s where nothing happened save for one exit from BRODEUR’s! First time all week…over at the Club, there was strong activity in the SE and activity in the NE but still no confirmed pair.Sunday = game on! I watched the Club for 2 hours (another late morning start with another near freezing beginning to the day). The SE pair was in and out together and a single swift used the NE chimney; so all was continuing status quo. Over at Brodeur’s, I saw another entry/exit cycle but didn’t catch a glimpse of Church birds. So back last night for an epic head snapping session – had daytime activity then a pair roosting at the Church. Also, another round of daytime activity took place at Brodeur’s. During the roosting hour at Brodeur’s, it was like watching a popcorn maker toss up swifts out of the chimney – after flitty in and out and in and out activity, 2 swifts seem to have settled for the night as dark plunged the rim into “that which an observer cannot see” territory.Suzanne has sent news that they saw 2 noisy swifts entering together at 6 PM on Friday night. How much fun is it to kick back in the yard and enjoy that spectacle as dinner is cooking on the bbq!’

So stay dry this evening, and hopefully we will look froward to seeing a plethora of (dry) swift reports in the coming days!

— Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator
c/o Nature Manitoba401-63 Albert StreetWinnipeg, MB R3B 1G4
Office: 204-943-9029
www.mbchimneyswift.com

This is the first part of our National Roost Monitoring Program results for May 30^th, and what a crazy night of monitoring we had! If you have not sent your report in yet, no worries, we plan to do an update and reminder on Monday, and we will include all the remaining and weekend reports in that.

We start our roundup in a new place for Chimney Swifts. Cory and Scott took a drive out to Pilot Mound to check for swifts. On two occasions in 2018, swifts were noted in town. Here is a snippet of their report:

‘8:00 pm – Scott and I arrived at Pilot Mound.  We drove slowly through neighbourhoods with documented chimneys

8:15 pm – spotted one swift flying over Railway Street.  We parked and decided to stay for awhile.  Within five minutes we saw two swifts flying together and vocalizing.  The pair began flying in a tight circle over a chimney at above address

8:30 pm – one bird dropped into chimney feet first.  Second bird continued to fly over chimney, some passes were just a few inches over the structure and this bird appeared to begin entry but changed course.

8:55 pm – bird in chimney exited and rejoined the mate.  Both birds continued tight circle over the chimney’

This is excellent news, our first ever documented Chimney Swift use of a chimney in Pilot Mound!

Staying in western Manitoba, Glennis checked a new chimney on the New Era School in Brandon. She may have seen a distant pair of swifts, but was unable to confirm this, leaving with a zero in the chimney. Margaret and Millie did though have a very late single entrance at the regular Orange Block site – almost after dark in fact. Dan has also not seen any swifts in Virden, despite his best efforts.

Further north, and Christian has eBirded a swift at the east gate area of Riding Mountain. Intriguing, as this is the area they were traditionally observed nesting in trees.

In Dauphin, Ken, Jan, Pat and Marilyn sent this report:

‘Well, in Dauphin the theatre gets in new movies for Friday so if we have been stalling and still want to see a movie, it’s Thursday or nothing and that’s what the case was for us tonight. Yup, we went to a movie. I had been commenting to Jan that I always thought the heat of the day was around 2:00 to 3:00 PM but noticed the weather channel had us going to be at +30ish come 5:00 PM. When we came out of the theatre and dashed to our vehicles, we started to shiver! It was very overcast with dark clouds, windy and cool, no I’ll call it cold! We had some sort of cold front come through. Despite the weather, the swifts did not let us down however with every chimney having at least 1 go down (roost had 14; nesting one had 2 and nesting 3 had 1) so we had a total of (17) swifts accounted for which is a 3 bird increase over night #3 and the highest count this spring. The temperature was now down to 13C but was to feel like 8C. All swifts went down their respective chimneys between sunset and 10 minutes after with no unaccounted birds.’

Gord  reported 11 swifts in the air in Portage la Prairie, and reported from Trinity United Church as follows:

‘2 entries into the south chimney at 21:30 and 2 entries in the north chimney (small north chimney) at 21:52.’

Over to Mike and Michele. This time they avoided the RCMP – but had a good chat with the church caretaker. The report was more straightforward as well this time:

‘Not much activity to report this evening in SFX but one pair of swifts is still in the area, although foraging much further afield than usual. They both entered the chimney to roost for the night.’

Swinging south, Rhonda came up with a bonus, a new site in Carman:

‘Carman had a great night, last night.  At one point, there were 12 swifts spotted circling in a group at the Carman Elementary School.  That’s up from our previous 4.  I did see one swift enter a private house (east of the elementary school) chimney at approximately 9:30 pm… comparatively early. I watched the Town Hall at 10 pm and saw 3 go in but 1 popped back out and never returned.’

12 swifts, one person, Rhonda needs some volunteer help. If you live in the area and would like to help, please let us know and we will pass your details to her.

And in Morden, David reported that:

‘Coffee was replaced by a Slurpee and up to 5 Swifts (and multiple Common Nighthawk) where seen foraging at the same time.  “My” chimney had 3 entries and no exits so my next quest is to find where the other 2 birds are roosting/nesting.  Morden isn’t that big….how hard could it be….right?’

It took several trips for David to zone in on the one chimney in Morden, for some reason these swifts are elusive!

Over in La Salle, Irene and Scott finally had some swifts to see. We make the total in the air as 5, with one entering each chimney on the church. Here again, we ended up with extra birds, and no known chimneys for them to roost for the night.

In Otterburne, Colleen and Mark  had a strange start to the evening. At 8:25, they reported:

‘Couldn’t see the birds! There seemed to be no action.’

The summary then stated:

‘we saw Chimney Swift periodically through the evening. However, they were hard to see and I think they were further south much of the time and quite high up most of the time.’

Eventually they noted entries in all chimneys, accounting for 5 swifts between the chimneys. They also had several unaccounted swifts in the air after the others had gone in for the night.

In Steinbach, Keelie watched on the 29^th and 30^th. On the 29^th she noted 5 swifts in the air, but on the 30^th only 3. On each occasion 3 swifts entered the chimney.

David over in La Broquerie had an excellent evening,, with 2 swifts in the small church chimney and 5, possibly 6, in the tall chimney:

‘I think this was the best and most interesting viewing night since I have been doing it.

For most of the evening there were 6, then 7 and then 8 in the air.  (Possibly even 9 counted by an ‘inexperienced’ spectator.)  There were lots of ins and outs such that I completely lost track as many exited on the far side behind the chimney and dropped out of sight below the roof line.  Anyway, 8 is a good number.

But, at about 9.35 I counted 12 in the air and my spectator counted 13.  Thirteen certainly did not enter the chimney and I stayed until it was too dark to see, so the extra ones possibly up to 6 must have another roost nearby.’

Into the ‘peg. Marshall sent this report from Fort Garry:

‘I’ve done the Cambridge (on Pembina) (two entries) and the Lord Roberts Leisure Centre (nuthin).’

Kirsten and Doug unfortunately still have no sightings from the Flag Shop on Pembina. This is a regular spot for swifts, and the lack of activity is a bit baffling.

Into Fort Rouge, Barbara and Phil watched two apartments, one on Clarke had no entries, with 6 swifts circling over the area, and one on River had 2 entries and 5 swifts circling.

Leah and Maya watched 915 Corydon and noted 2 entries, strangely both were far apart in terms of time, and very quick.

Jenny watched the possible new Windsor Park sites. There may have been an exit at one stage, but unfortunately the bird came from a strange angle and she was unable to confirm. She will try again though!

Blair revisited the Marion Hotel, the scene of a 3 swift roost a couple of evenings earlier:

‘It seems like the 3 swift I found at this location on May 27, were passing through as there were no entries for this location tonight.’

Blair also checked out another site on Tache earlier this week, again with no success.

Nicole and Cain continue their watch at the Fleetwood in Wolesey. Nicole recounted:

‘I had 2 swifts enter last night at Fleetwood and I had an exit as well!

1 entry 9:05

1 exit 9:10

2 enter at 9:25

4 others seen in the air’

Looks like some nest building is happening at the Fleetwood.

Lynnea and Adam did two sites. They began at the Nordale School in Norwood. 2 swifts entered the chimney for the night early. Brilliant news, another new site in Winnipeg! Not content, they decided to go elsewhere for more swift thrills and visited 303 Assiniboine Downtown. 2 swifts entered the tall nesting chimney. 11 swifts circled overhead looking like they were going to roost for the night, then at 9:38 they flew south. This suggests a possible roost somewhere south of the river.

Exciting news from Lanark Gardens on Corydon. Janice and John managed to observe swifts enter 3 different chimneys! At least 1, possibly 2 have never had confirmed swift observations before:

‘We had success tonight! We were originally watching 2 chimneys but decided to include a third chimney as there seemed to be activity in that area so we probably missed a bit of data from 465 D. There were about 11 chimney swifts above us flying but the various buildings and trees obscure the view as they fly overhead. The group of chimney swifts was definitely flying closer to the Corydon Ave. end of that building complex. 

That was a totally enjoyable experience – their calls are so distinct and it was amazing how they silently drop into the chimneys. Look forward to June 3rd.’

Great to hear!

Down at Assiniboine School, Beth, Bill, Laura and Tim counted 120 swifts, with 55 entering within a few seconds of each other. A single swift also entered the King’s Theatre and two took the plunge into Carillon Towers.

Frank and Jacquie counted a net 4 at the Moorgate on Portage Avenue. We were lucky enough to have 2 pairs of eyes on Silver Heights as this can be seen from the Moorgate spot. Bob and Valerie had the pitchside view. Both sets of observers confirmed daytime activity and a pair of swifts onsite = an active nest site is underway before the June 3 deadline! Laura still had no swifts use the zoo tower, but there are still a few days for someone to decide to make good use of it.

To the south. Blaire had one of ‘those’ evenings:

‘Other than the five-sneeze fit at 9:02 pm my eyes never left the chimney tonight until it was too dark. Saw 3 swifts flying around and near the foundation a couple of times tonight at around 8:45 and then about 8:53 p.m.. But ZERO swifts entered. Not sure what is going on or if I am losing it. I’m still watching but can’t see anything anymore. 

There were 4 swifts in town yesterday so I had expected to see something tonight.’

Barb and Rob also had an evening in St Norbert, but Barb sent a longer report with a St Adolphe update, so here it is in it’s full glory:

‘What a difference a couple of days make. A short shoulder season seemed to transition us rapidly between a lingering chilly spring to summer-like conditions. Monday morning was a whiteout with frost on the roof and lawn – a male Scarlet Tanager was grounded on the road in a beam of sunshine trying to warm up. Fast forward to Thursday and the temperature soared to 30 C by mid-afternoon before “cooling” to ~23 C at the end of the roosting hour. 

Thursday morning, conditions were perfect for Chimney Swifts in St Adolphe. Local feeding was seen regularly and there were a lot of social interactions – trios racing by, courting “V” displays between pairs, and group discussions heard as swifts moved overhead. The swifts at Main St were in and out of the chimney twice in an hour. Over at the Club Amical, the pair in the SE chimney had 4 entry/exit cycles in an hour; once both swifts flew in and out together. The NE Club chimney was used twice in an hour, similar to the Main St birds, BUT that necessary confirmation of a pair using the site has eluded me…will have to check it out at roosting hour if the daytime “reveal” doesn’t happen soon. 

Wednesday, the Church swifts were active in their chimney too.

Wednesday and Thursday, no activity was seen at Brodeur Bros. Last week’s investigations doesn’t seem to have culminated in a breeding pair settling in.

Just a reminder that June 3rd is the all important date for predicting the possibility of a successful breeding attempt. A pair of breeding Chimney Swifts must be nest building at a site by this date to have a chance for completing their parental duties and launching fledglings. It is a very short breeding season in Manitoba for these birds and every successful breeding attempt has started on or before June 3. 

Back to the St Norbert Parish Church for NRMP-3 and the night was a pleasant change from Sunday’s frigid conditions. It was absolutely balmy at 26 C, the winds were calm, and the bonus was the heavy perfume of flowering trees. Chimney Swift activity changed altogether. Shortly after set-up, about 8:30 PM, a swift blew out of the chimney. Then a second swift made an exit. A perfect recipe for a nest site = two adults using the chimney during the daytime! Two swifts roosted for the night – 1 swift entered just after the roosting hour began and 1 swift followed 15 minutes later. All the quick action was over before sunset.

Thursday morning at my favourite organic garden centre, I had an engaging chat with Shane who is a new volunteer at the Beer Store on Portage. Here’s a shout out to him with the hopes that swifts were about last night. The world of swifts changes dynamically and the warm weather sure has shifted activities.’

And that is the end of this, er, brief update. We will send a reminder out on Monday for the evening monitoring session, and include, no doubt, a few remaining reports. It really was an excellent night of intrigue and swift fun, and let’s hope for good weather on Monday, and even more of your excellent reports and stories.

— Tim Poole

How about volunteering for the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative ?

Last night (Wednesday the 29th, May), 3 Chimney Swifts were spotted over two apartments in Windsor Park in Winnipeg. These apartments both have open chimneys. The sighting was at 9pm, during the roost hour, and the birds disappeared quickly, possibly into the chimneys. 

We are looking for someone living in the area who might be willing to do a formal roost count at these chimneys on Elizabeth Road. Although we have a formal roost monitoring night this evening, we would be happy for someone to watch them on any other night.

Please let us know if you are interested in helping out by emailing mbchimneyswift@gmail.com

— Tim Poole

Firstly, a reminder that tomorrow evening, the 30^th May, is our next monitoring night. Let’s hope for more birds than before, I certainly feel it will be a very good evening judging by the sudden rise in temperatures.

As ever, try to start one hour before sundown.

We were recently delighted to award a Chimney Swift plaque to the effervescent Margaret Yorke and Millie Reid. Margaret and Millie have dedicated many years to numerous birding projects, including the Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas.

They are also well know for their long-term maintenance and monitoring of their line of bluebird houses in Oak Lake.

2019 will be their tenth consecutive year of monitoring Chimney Swifts in Brandon, and this alone is a significant reason to celebrate their achievements. The first records of Margaret and Millie watching chimneys in Brandon come from 2010. At this time they watched two different chimneys. Following the demolition of one of these chimneys, Margaret and Millie put considerable effort into monitoring the Orange Block on Princess Street. Their dedication to the cause has been incredible, often watching the chimney at least once per week throughout the season, often confirming that a successful nesting attempt has occurred. 

We are therefore delighted that we could present them with a plaque at a recent workshop, and thank Margaret and Millie for not just a decade of swift watching, but many years of dedication to bird monitoring and stewardship in the Province of Manitoba.

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Don’t forget our next night of chimney monitoring on Thursday night.

The weather forecast looks positively spring-like (for a change)!

— Tim Poole

We were saddened to learn that MCSI volunteer John Hays passed away on May 9th. John started volunteering with MCSI in 2016. In three seasons of monitoring John managed to discover several chimneys in downtown Winnipeg, contributing over 100 hours of chimney watching.

In his first year, John watched four chimneys in South Point Douglas, an area which had received relatively little monitoring attention previously. John would often use his days off to look for chimneys. Coming across a suitable candidate, he would set up 30 minutes daytime watches to confirm whether breeding pairs were resident. In 2016 he watched a previously unknown chimney on Princess Street all the way through to the chicks fledging. 

In 2017 John made a significant contribution to efforts to confirm whether sites would be eligible for the federal Critical Habitat process. In total, he watched 22 chimneys that year, all but one in the West End, South Point Douglas and Downtown areas of Winnipeg. John confirmed Chimney Swifts were using three of our target chimneys. Even more importantly, John’s efforts led to the discovery of four other chimneys. He also followed up on three discoveries from other people. These efforts meant that a further seven sites could be added to the Critical Habitat process. One of these sites, the John Howard Society building on Ellice, even had its chimney repaired thanks to John’s eagle eye. 

John continued to monitor in 2018, taking on the challenge of watching the new large roost at 303 Assiniboine just off the Donald Bridge in Winnipeg. Even though his health was starting to deteriorate, he still maintained his watches, carrying out 45 separate monitoring sessions throughout the season. This included finding three completely unknown active chimneys. John’s dedication was such, that we had no option but to present him with a ‘Swift Champion’ plaque for his contributions.

John was still keen to continue nest site monitoring this summer. Unfortunately he passed away earlier this month before he could continue his swift quests.

His obituary describes a ‘kind and gentle man’. Anyone who met John would agree wholeheartedly with this. He was courteous, dedicated, and will be sorely missed. We will certainly miss his regular monitoring reports this summer. 

We extend our condolences to John’s family and friends during this hard time.

— Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator

Following windy, rainy National Roost Monitoring Program Night 1, we have a lot of information to recap on. We will cover reports that came in to us too late to be included in our first update, we will cover NRMP night 1, and we also have a very thorough update from St Adolphe.

A number of weeks ago, long-term La Broquerie volunteer, David Dawson, posted a piece on our website about a tower that he had constructed. His goal was to find someone who might be able to attach it to a building in a place where swifts regularly hang out, and see if swifts might nest in it.

Rhonda Smith, a resident of Carman stepped up. A few years ago, the Elementary School chimney in Carman had to be demolished, and Rhonda, who works for the Prairie Rose School Division, knew that this would be a perfect opportunity to get a replacement structure attached to the building. Thus Rhonda contacted David, and David agreed that this would be a great opportunity. 

Rhonda collected the tower, and Claude Plante and Bernie Chambers from the School Division worked out where best to place it. They decided on a location close to the old chimney at Carman Elementary School, a logical decision!

Over the past few days, they worked on fixing the tower to the school. From the following photos, you can see how they did it. 

So now we wait, the tower is in place, and we will be doing some follow-up with the students in the hope that maybe they will be the first to spot a swift entering the new structure.

This is an excellent project and would obviously not be possible without the generous donation from David, the determination of Rhonda and the willing participation of Cecile (Principal), Claude and Bernie (School Division Facilities staff). Many thanks to the Prairie Rose School Division for their commitment to making this project work.

The relocated tower is re-born…

–Tim Poole

As the long weekend disappears in the rearview mirror, we are able to report on an excellent start to the season for swift monitoring. There were many reports, and although there were a number of zero’s, there were also a surprisingly good number of occupied chimneys.

For our report, we being in Carman, and are delighted that Matt has been able to pick up the mantle of swift watching this year. Matt first spotted swifts on the 9^th May in town during the day. On the 18^th he reported:

‘I Saw two Swifts enter the chimney. First bird at 2040 hrs approaching suddenly from South and made a very fast wing-over into chimney, 2nd bird at 2110 hrs. Bird also suddenly appeared  from the South hovering directly over chimney and made a winnowing flutter entry into chimney.‘

On the 19^th, he did a second monitoring watch, and reported:

‘At 2100 hrs, I saw a single swift flying high, foraging over the town…no other activity until 2126 hrs. At this point a small swift madea fast dive into the chimney. A minute later a larger swift made a winnowing approach into the chimney. Probably the same pair as seen on Saturday night. ‘

Finally, on the 20^th, Matt went out again and reported two birds in the Memorial Hall, plus a further two birds in the skies. Numbers are obviously building in Carman.

On the 16^th, Irene and Scott made their ways for a first ever swift watch at La Salle. Unfortunately it was probably too early in the season for this site, no swifts were seen. Hopefully they will have more sightings next time. On the same evening, Rudolf spotted 10 swifts in East Kildonan. Bob and Valerie also lucked out at New Silver Heights in St James. Better luck was had by two other new volunteers, Colleen and Mark, ably assisted by Frank and Jacquie at Providence College in Otterburne. In total, 5 swifts were shared between 3 chimneys.

Marshall sent in his report, in typically humorous fashion:

‘I’m scoping out some sites in Osborne tonight. I found a good spot where I can watch 5 chimneys on 3 buildings at once and I saw two entries at St. Augustine’s Church, and there’s been no exits in 15 minutes since. I also saw 4 others circling chimneys on a building on Stradbrook. I’ve forgotten how much I feel like I’m lingering about in an alley to sell drugs when I do this, hah.’

On that note, if anyone would like an official MCSI lanyard, please let us know, and we will get one mailed to you as soon as possible.

Frank and Jacquie were first out the block on the 17^th. They watched the Moorgate and gave a classic MCSI report full of questions marks:

‘On Friday night ten CHSW were seen in the vicinity of the Moorgate around 20:00. There were six entries and three exits from the Moorgate chimney. Where did the other swifts spend the night? Why did some swifts choose to vacate the Moorgate?’

Barbara and Phil got off to a flying start on their Osborne Village swift adventures, recording 2 entries at a site on Clarke Street. There were 10 swifts in the air in this area, a busy highway for swifts.

Luc on the otherhand had a puzzling evening. The best chimney in St-Jean-Baptiste has always been the church. So when he saw 3 swifts in the air it must have felt that normal service had resumed. Unfortunately that was it, 3 in the air, none in the chimney. There were swifts observed in the school chimney in 2018, so we can only surmise they headed over there.

Onto the ‘official’ evening on the 18^th. St Norbert tied together nicely. Blaire reported:

‘Behavioural Health Foundation had 2 chimney swift entries tonight; one right after the other at 8:58 p.m. Didn’t see any other activity. The two swifts were seen individually off and on a couple of occasions before that but not together.’

Why did it tie together nicely? Well, because Rob and Barb and this to say:

‘Just home and trying to thaw – wow, what a cold wind tonight! We had a few sightings of a single swift and one brief sighting of what seemed to be 3 swifts. Generally a quiet night in the ‘hood. So we had a single fast entry at 9:16:31 PM – very low to the rim from the ESE; no vocalizations heard at all.’

Mike and Michelle continued where they left off watching the Saint Francois Xavier church:

‘They’re baaaack!! I do not have much activity to report but more than I expected this early on a chilly/windy day. One entry and three in the air is a very good start.’

Great news, although interestingly, we only have one chimney on the database here. There must be another chimney in the area…

David accounted for all his swifts in La Broquerie, a good sign following some fun and games from the swifts in 2018. Here is his report:

‘I saw three birds enter the chimneys though I thought I saw four at one point flying in the air. Surprisingly, as they cannot be nesting yet, 2 went in the small chimney and only one in the large chimney, the large chimney being higher, larger and presumably easier to enter and exit.’

Gerald and the Selkirk Birdwatchers sent an unofficial tally of 21 entries, 5 exits, net 16 in the chimney. Ken and Jan reporting in from Dauphin had a similar number:

‘We had a FROST WARNING for tonight so I was not surprised when neither of last years nesting chimneys (2018-14 & 15) observed any use by swifts. The roost chimney (#600) however had 16 swifts go down starting right at the assigned start time till sunset. Most birds were flying in close pairs but, there were 2 individual birds that showed up alone and went down alone. It felt like we should have on hat, mitts and parka, no shorts and flip-flops tonight for sure! There is talk on the weather network of rain for the next observation night.’

Swifts obviously didn’t get the message that it was counting time in Lac du Bonnet, Diann and Cam had zero activity in town, and very little bird activity in general. To add to this list, Kirsten had no luck at the Flag Shop on Pembina, Lynnea and Adam watched a colossal chimney in South Point Douglas to no avail, and Peter hit a zero at the church on Hampton Street in St James. Gary at St John’s Ravenscourt was more in luck, a first ever watch, and one swift in for the night. Blair at 690 St Joseph Street in St Boniface also counted 2 entries. Debby and Carl were also out of luck, zero swifts seen at the Old Grace Housing Coop.

Finally, Tim finally made it out on the 19^th following a weekend of IBA activities elsewhere in Manitoba. Tasked with counting the large roost in downtown Winnipeg, he sent the following report to Frank, Rob and Barb:

‘Well that was bizarre. Nowt, zero, empty. A roost which hit the heights of 50+ swifts in 2018 wasn’t used tonight.’

Guess even those expecting a large number of swifts can be left puzzled by these birds!

Barb is also keeping us updated on progress in St Adolphe. On Monday the 20^th, she reported that there were 5 swifts in town during the day, 2 are nest building in the church, 2 are in the southeast Club Amical, and 1 is, well, a spare swift for now.

If you have swift reports and have not been able to submit them yet, no worries, we take them at any time, and endeavour to add them to the next update.

Our first National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP) evening starts tomorrow, Wednesday 22^nd. Official counting starts one hour before sundown. That will obviously vary around the province. We are looking forward to hearing about your findings.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted reports so far – and happy swifting everyone!

Tim Poole
Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator

The swifts are well and truly back. Gord has seen two in Portage la Prairie, and Blaire two in St Norbert. There have also been swifts in St-Jean-Baptiste reported by Luc on eBird.
This segues nicely to the first monitoring night of 2019. This is our MCSI early season roost count. It is officially happening on Saturday May 18th, although due to the long weekend, we have suggested a bit of flexibility, and you can also go out on the 16th or 17th to get that first monitoring point. As ever, try to begin one hour before sunset, and end thirty minutes after sunset. For example, Winnipeg sunset is 9:12 on the 18th. So start time will be 8:12pm, and end time at 9:42. This first watch can be hit and miss, but by the time we get to nights 2 and 3 of the National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP), you should be hoping to see swifts enter the chimney.

Once you have your datasheets completed, send them to mbchimneyswift@gmail.com. We also love to hear of any anecdotes you have as we try to get a report out on this website before the first NRMP night on May 22nd.
For those who have not seen them yet, here are the protocols for 2019, and here is the Word version of the datasheet.

Good luck swifting!.

— Tim Poole