Thank you to all those hardy souls who hit the ground running and committed to monitoring sites on May 23rd. We apologise for the slow update, Tim was away at a workshop last week, and Frank was also in absentia. However, we are back now, and ready to bring the update today on National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP) night 1, with the NRMP night 2 from Sunday to follow tomorrow.
There were a number of headlines from night 1, not least the reappearance of swifts in a number of towns and cities in Manitoba, including Steinbach, La Salle, St Francois Xavier and Brandon. There were also two previously unknown sites accounted for in Souris. The biggest news however must be the confirmation that the fall roost in Winnipeg is also a large spring roost. You can read the details of all these activities below.
The challenge with these updates is always to decide where we start, and who we begin with. On this occasion the honour goes to John, our Winnipeg Downtown swifter-in-chief. Having counted over 100 swifts enter the large fall downtown roost in August 2017, John returned to investigate whether this was a seasonal fluctuation, or a large roost in the downtown area, and his results did not disappoint! In total, 47 swifts entered the main chimney, and 3 entered the second chimney on the new roost at 303 Assiniboine next to the Donald Bridge.
Not to be outdone, David, Jake, Adolf and Anna watched the Assiniboine School chimney, counting 63 swifts entering the chimney. The dynamic between totals at these two chimneys is likely to be a fascinating watch over the coming week or two! They also watched a chimney drop into the Carillon and 2 into the King’s Theatre, making is a successful evening of swifting for all. Jenny was based nearby at the Hampton Church, watching 2 swifts into the eastern chimney. On Academy, Kelly-Anne watched a pair of swifts enter the chimney for an early bedtime at 9:03. A single swift was noted flying north after this, but overall, this was a quiet night for this area.
In East Kildonan, Pat and Dave, watched the Gordon King Memorial Church, a new site for MCSI, but again, had nothing to see. Wendy in St Vital at the Good News Fellowship Church was equally as unsuccessful, as was Francene at the new Old Grace and Nicole at the Fleetwood, both Wolseley, and new sites for swifts in Manitoba. Lauren watching a chimney on Stradbrook was also out of luck.
Moving out of Winnipeg, and the results were a lot more positive. Blaire was emailing ecstatically during her survey following 5 or 6 entries at the St Norbert Parish Church (the sixth might have been a leaver re-entering). This is a reward for Blaire’s commitment, following a number of no shows in 2017. Rob and Barb left the safety of St Adolphe and descended on La Salle, and the church. Of course, swifts being swifts, they decided to throw two of Manitoba’s most experienced swift watchers through a loop, 3 swifts descending into the small chimney, leaving the larger chimney which was occupied in 2017, vacant. Luc couldn’t get out on the 23rd, but checked the St-Jean-Baptiste chimney on the 22nd, having a pair fly into the chimney. A second pair flew off to another location, one that Luc is determined to track down in the coming days. Go Luc Go!
David was, as ever, at his two chimneys in La Broquerie. There were two swifts in each of the chimneys, but interestingly, 2 spares at the end. The La Broquerie mystery rears its head again – this site had spare swifts in previous years! In nearby Steinbach, new MCSI volunteer, Keelie, watched 2 swifts use the hospital on her first ever monitoring evening. Congratulations!
Mike and Michèle made up for the disappointment of a blank first monitoring night with the following report from St-Francois-Xavier.
Yay!! I knew they’d be back. I have to admit I was a bit worried when I first spied a Kestrel? Merlin? making several passes above the church but then, some time later, I saw the 3 chimney swifts together in the air, in fact I heard them before I actually saw them. If my memory is correct, last year 2 entered but the third one did not so I was happy to see all 3 eventually enter.
David in Morden though had the disappointment of seeing a swift but not seeing an entry, the bird roosting elsewhere. In Portage, Gord, Cal and Janice had 2 swifts in the United Church and 2 in the Red River College.
In Selkirk, Gerald and the Selkirk Birdwatching Club had one bird in the Merchant’s, 2 each in the yellow brick and Infirmary chimneys on the hospital site, and 12 on the large stack. The previous evening, Winona counted 23 swifts in the large stack, just to show how counts fluctuate in this season. The Dauphin roost appears to be in some sort of flux. once Manitoba’s largest roost, Ken and Jan only counted 2 swifts into the chimney, a third roosting elsewhere.
Further west, and Margaret and Millie had 2 swifts in the Brandon chimney, and then there was Souris. In total, 19 swifts were counted into 7 chimneys, with an eighth chimney receiving interest, but no takers for the night. Counting was undertaken by Katharine (4 in the Irish pub), Sabina (drawing a blank in the museum), Christian (4 in a 2 brick chimney on the Corner Closet), Tim (2 in the Kowalchuk Funeral Home, 5 in the united Church and 1 in the new site behind him), and Lynnea (1 in a new site behind her, and 2 in the White House). It is clear that Souris has some of the highest concentrations of chimneys in Manitoba!
And that is the report from NRMP 1. We love to report on all our volunteer efforts, and as the above list can attest, we certainly had a lot of those.
Thank you to everyone for your help, and expect to receive a new update on NRMP tomorrow!
–Tim Poole
Saturday evening saw our first monitoring night of 2018, and a varied and interesting one it was too.
Saturday May 19th will be our first monitoring evening of 2018. We hope everyone is fired up and ready to go. Just a quick note on what to expect. Our protocol is to begin monitoring 1 hour ahead of sundown, and end 30 minutes after sundown. I will be using this website to get my times: 
We have already had activity in the chimney at the Moorgate Apartments (2187 Portage Avenue) in Saint James, and we would like to have a volunteer to observe this site over the coming season. The building is in the Silver Heights neighbourhood in St. James, and it can be monitored from the comfort of your car on Portage Avenue across from the apartments.
MCSI are keen to help out any new volunteers and returning volunteers as you get going in 2018! For this reason, we will be hosting an early season swift count ahead of the first monitoring evening (which is on 
In 2017, Marshall Birch, a former summer student with the Manitoba IBA Program, completed a GIS project with MCSI. For anyone not familiar with GIS, it stands for Geographical Information Systems. These are incredibly powerful computer modelling programs, and among their many uses, can be used to map information and use that information to build predictive models based on the information provided. In this case, Marshall was able to create a predictive model for Chimney Swift habitat in Manitoba. As part of his model, he estimated, based habitat and land-use information, where we might find Chimney Swifts in the Province of Manitoba. If anyone is interested, his report is posted on our website at
Here is the crux – we need lots of help, as we would like to get as many days of monitoring covered on both these projects as possible. This would primarily be required during the roosting hour (half an hour either side of sundown). If you are able to help at any time from May 20th onwards, please contact Tim Poole at