New Swift Champion Plaques Awarded

Throughout the winter MCSI has been busy working behind the scenes reaching out to different groups and organisations extolling the virtues of an open chimney and its importance to a charismatic summer insect-eating machine. This winter we awarded a number of plaques to volunteers, landowners and businesses, promoting the cause of swift conservation here in Manitoba.

Merchant’s Hotel Selkirk
Possibly the only place on Earth where you might find Whoopi Goldberg sharing a place with breeding Chimney Swifts, the Merchant’s Hotel, or ‘The Merch’ to local people is part of Selkirk folklore. Over many years it has been used as a venue for filmmakers and is now a rock music venue, proving that Chimney Swifts prefer eclectic tastes in music. Dean Peterson, the new owner of the hotel was absolutely delighted to receive a plaque from MCSI. The hotel has 2 chimneys, one which was blocked by fallen masonry and a bees nest in the past but was repaired thanks to grant moneys from Environment Canada. We are delighted that The Merch are committed to retaining this important habitat for swifts and it really is fantastic to see the enthusiasm that swifts engender in Manitoba’s communities. Check out the Selkirk Record page 5 at http://selkirkrecord.ca/split_document.aspx?doc=SelkirkRecord040617.pdf

The Selkirk Birdwatching Club monitors a large group of chimneys in the Selkirk area on behalf of MCSI. Gerald Machnee and before him Ruby Tekauz have organised this group of star volunteers to monitor a total of 7 Selkirk chimneys. Each year they even seem to succeed in unearthing another new site for the database. What is astounding about this group is that they continue to monitor swifts all through the season from May until the last individuals eventually leave the city in August. This group are well deserved to receive the title of ‘Swift Champions’.

St Avila School
Late last year, MCSI gave a short presentation on Chimney Swifts to the children at St Avila. This followed the discovery of a nest in the chimney during an inspection in summer 2016. This site was previously occupied by swifts but after a few years the sightings dried up. We have now discovered that the chimney was capped for health and safety reasons and that the cap had to be removed last summer with the swifts taking occupancy during that period when the cap was off. Good for us! This is the first record in Manitoba of an capped chimney becoming reoccupied following the removal of the cap. The chimney will continue to be inspected to ensure that it remains safe for the children but for now the Pembina Trails School Division have agreed to keep the cap from the chimney.

Good News Fellowship Church
Summer 2016 saw members of the Good News Fellowship Church on St Mary’s Road in Winnipeg become part of the Chimney Swift Initiative led by church member Justin Schell. Later in the summer, the church chimney was inspected and fixed by the church caretaker. MCSI also paid to have a pan installed around the rim to stabilise it. An inspection of the cleanout revealed that the chimney had been used over a number of years by swifts with multiple nests and a whole heap of guano blocking the access to the main part of the chimney. This is obviously a champion chimney for a champion church!

Adolf Ens and David Wiebe
Two of the original volunteers for MCSI, Adolf and David have worked tirelessly monitoring a number of chimneys in the St James area. The focus of their efforts originally began around the King’s Theatre and local apartments with occasional watches at the chimney on the Assiniboine School which was never quite as consistent a site as the others. In 2014 something strange and exciting occurred in the area as around sundown the numbers of swifts in the air appeared to be greater than in previous years. It was then that they realised that for reasons unknown, the Assiniboine School had suddenly become the largest roost site in Manitoba. Throughout the years, David and Adolf have been very important to the work of MCSI but from 2014 they have put in even greater hours throughout the season counting the swifts at the school looking for that all important zero where the chimney is no longer in use.

Ed Loewen
Ed is a local Winnipeg mason who has become a valuable source of advice on the technical side of buildings, chimney and furnace regulations and masonry in general. Ed has repaired a number of chimneys on behalf as MCSI and is also a bit of a birder at heart. We are keen to link with people in the industry just as we are keen to bring landowners into the fold with MCSI, and Ed is the first of these. Making these links might be key to restoring Chimney Swift habitat in the future.

And last but certainly not least::

Rob and Barb Stewart receive their award

MCSI Saint Adolphe monitors and steering committee members Barb and Rob Stewart were recently given the Ralph Bird Award by Nature Manitoba in recognition of their huge contribution to our understanding of Manitoba’s Chimney Swifts. See http://www.naturemanitoba.ca/news-articles/2017-nm-award-recipients. Congratulations both!

MCSI Spring 2017 Update

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things…” (Lewis Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter)

…but to roll out the 2017 MCSI season, we are going to talk of many swift related things!

Our Chimney Swifts are migrating north from their wintering grounds in South America. The latest eBird map shows that our intrepid swifts are fast moving up the eastern coast of the USA, recently being seen as far north at Maryland and New Jersey. As an aside, it is interesting to see how few winter sightings there were in North America, just one near Bogota and one cut from this map in Peru.

With the swift’s impending arrival in Manitoba, mid- to late-May, it is time to SAVE DATES for the spring monitoring programs. The 2017 National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP) dates are May 24, May 28, June 1, and June 5. The national organizers in Quebec use a recipe to choose dates each year: the first monitoring night occurs on the Wednesday preceding the last Sunday in May. Still with us? As a result of using this recipe, sometimes peak counts can occur before monitoring gets underway. This has happened in Ontario and in Manitoba, our later arriving swifts can be more abundant at roosts well after the NRMP finishes.

You’ve heard MCSI extol the value of “0” data-points. Those beautiful zeroes, which are so frustrating for bird enthusiasts to score, are so very important to establish true arrival dates. In order to get our Manitoba counts bounded by an observation before the Chimney Swifts arrive and to better inform seasonal peak counts, MCSI is adding two additional monitoring dates – one on either side of the NRMP dates. We would appreciate observation data for May 20 and June 9. Even if early arriving or lingering roosting birds are on-site, we can be confident to have captured seasonal maxima if NRMP counts are higher than our first and last night counts.

Now we have to capture you for monitoring at specific sites. In 2017, the steering committee asks for your help with three high priority activities. We recognize that this may result in a shake-up for some of our long-term supporters. Prioritizing monitoring sites may involve heading to a new site or accepting the helping eyes of additional monitors at your site.

First, we have 30 chimneys which need one additional record of use e.g., entries or exits, to make the site eligible to be registered as critical habitat. To help you locate these new chimneys, we have come up with a rather splendid looking map. If you are limited to NRMP monitoring, please consider selecting one of these sites to focus your efforts on this year. We will keep this map updated – those sites in blue require a new volunteer to check them and those in pink have a dedicated volunteer(s) already. We need to submit observations to Environment Canada asap to have sites listed in the registry. Tim will coordinate monitors, so please contact him if you are interested in a special assignment.

Second, we would like to continue tracking the 17 sites which have qualified previously as roost sites for the NRMP; these chimneys have housed 4 or more Chimney Swifts for overnight rest. Those chimneys can be found on the map below. Some of these 17 chimneys have dedicated monitors while, for other sites, new volunteers need to be assigned. Chimneys which have dedicated volunteers have purple pointers and those which do not have red pointers. We will update the map as people come forward to cover new sites. If you are willing and able to take on one of these sites please email Tim Poole at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com.

The third high priority action item is for season-long coverage of our 3 Big Roosts –Dauphin (213 Main St.), Selkirk (Large Stack), and at Assiniboine School in Winnipeg. MCSI is collating data on the dynamics of roost sites relative to nest sites. With counts for 2017, we will be able to publish an analysis of arrival times, dispersal, and put the non-breeding vs breeding portions of the Manitoba Chimney Swift population into perspective. After the NRMP and special MCSI monitoring night of June 9, we would appreciate receiving any roosting counts for the 3 Big Roosts over the remainder of the season. More is always better, so weekly visits would be ideal while checking in once every 10-14 days would still be helpful. Tim will be coordinating with the team leaders for each of these roosts and help steer supporters to the chimney rims as required.

Your monitoring results do make a difference. Rob Stewart, and co-authors Tim Poole, Christian Artuso, and Barb Stewart, recently submitted a manuscript “Loss and preservation of Chimney Swift habitat in Manitoba, 2007-2016” to Blue Jay (we hope to be published in the summer or fall edition). Data analysed in the paper represent ten years of observations made by our cadre of dedicated citizen scientists. Beyond informing the general public, the publication should be used by the Chimney Swift recovery strategy team. The authors cannot stress too much that the monitoring data, including the zeroes, were essential to this analysis, which we think is the first ever quantification of habitat loss in Canada. So, thank you all for engaging in the process of supporting this species at risk!

Spreading the word about Chimney Swifts is taking on a new look in St Adolphe. Organizers of the revitalization project for Main St. have proposed two exciting visual displays featuring swifts. Stay tuned as the rollout starts this summer…

We always enjoy gatherings to marvel at the aerial wonders of Chimney Swifts. Join us for A Swift Night Out which is being organized for Assiniboine School on Tuesday June 13, with a rain date of Wednesday June 14. There will be more to follow on this.

Now that we have monitoring and outreach issues covered, here is an update on habitat stewardship goals for 2017. Funding continues from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program. We are currently looking to complete two chimney repairs in 2017. We are applying for more funding and we will keep you posted on any new developments.

To finish off, we are pleased to direct you to our new website at: https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/ Our webmaster, Frank Machovec, has harmonized the old MCSI website ( http://www.mbchimneyswift.ca/ ) and old Blog site ( https://mbchimneyswift.wordpress.com/ ). Bookmark this one-stop destination for all of your made-in-Manitoba Chimney Swift news!

Everyone at MCSI is looking forward to another exciting year of swift watching. Let’s keep in touch as the season spreads its wings…

— Tim Poole, MCSI Coordinator; Frank Machovec, webmaster; Christian Artuso, Ron Bazin, Neil Butchard, Lewis Cocks, Ken De Smet, Nicole Firlotte, Rob Stewart, and Barb Stewart, Steering Committee Members.

Welcome to our new home!

www.mbchimneyswift.com

We’ve copied our blog content and web material to a new home !

You might want to update your bookmarks/favourites to reflect the new locations for posts and files from the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative.

fjm

Season’s Greetings from the MCSI

Always remember that it’s not just Santa who needs an open chimney. Thank you to all our volunteers and supporters for making 2016 a memorable year for Chimney Swift conservation in Manitoba. We hope you enjoy the coming holiday season and look forward to seeing many of you in 2017!

— The Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative (Christian Artuso, Ron Bazin, Neil Butchard, Lewis Cocks, Ken De Smet, Nicole Firlotte, Frank Machovec (web maestro), Rob and Barb Stewart (St Adolphe gurus) and Tim Poole (Habitat and Outreach))

Stewardship and Outreach

I thought now would be a good time to send an update to our supporters on the progress of our stewardship and outreach activities in the past couple of months. During the fall, MCSI employed a Winnipeg-based mason, Ed Loewen, to carry out repairs to five active chimneys which had become degraded and required repairs to ensure they would remain viable swift habitat. The selection of sites is carried out on a simple criteria, being:

Is or has the chimney been an active site for swifts in the past 5-10 years?
If it has not been active for a few years is there good reason for that (e.g. the top of the chimney has been blocked by falling masonry)?
If it has not been active for a few years but repairs would make it suitable, are there other Chimney Swifts in the area to suggest birds might return once the work is complete?
Most importantly, is there interest from the building owners and community in seeing these repairs through and to be champions of swift conservation in the future?

In 2016 we originally had a longer list of sites with which to work but due to various reasons, for example change of ownership, we were able to reduce the final list to five chimneys. Below, I will summarise the work we were able to complete.

Merchant’s Hotel, Selkirk (2 chimneys)

We were delighted to complete our first project in Selkirk with the Merchant’s Hotel. This building had recently changed hands and the new owner was very willing to work with us. There are two chimneys on the building. One was active and the other had been blocked by a bee nest. Inspection of the cleanout of the second smaller chimney revealed that swifts had historically used the site and we had repairs completed to both in the hope that a second pair of swifts will nest here in future years. The chimney had a flashing pan added to the top, offering greater stability over a longer period of time. The photos below show the before, during and after stages of this work.

St Norbert’s Parish Church

Local volunteer Blaire Barta first discovered the chimney on the rear of the St Norbert’s Parish Church while walking her dog in 2015. Following a no swift-show for new volunteer Lucy Johnson during the National Roost Monitoring Program evenings in 2016, it appeared that we might be out of luck. However, local reports suggested that swifts failed to appear in St Norbert until mid-June in 2016, a strange event indeed. Later in the summer following reports of swifts in the area, Blaire returned for another look. That evening six birds entered the chimney. Given the state of the top of the chimney, we moved fast to ensure that it could be repaired promptly, and this was completed during the fall. This was the most complex procedure due to the position and height of the chimney on the church building and the need to wrap scaffolding around the entire structure to protect the roof.

Good News Fellowship Church, St Mary’s Road, Winnipeg

The chimney on the Good News Fellowship Church was becoming extremely degraded with the mortar holding the bricks together eroding. Following a chimney inspection in the summer, the church building maintenance repointed the chimney on their own back. It was suggested afterwards by an independent source that a pan to cover the lip would help to stabilise the top layers of bricks and MCSI stepped in to help with this part of the work.

Yale Street, Winnipeg

This building was already made famous by a piece on the CBC website. This fall we had the chimney at the front of the property repointed. This allowed the owners to upgrade a previously capped chimney at the rear of the property in order to install a new central heating system. By doing so, we helped to conserve the swift habitat for future breeding attempts.

The work program above was achieved thanks to grants given by Environment Canada and a private donation to MCSI.

A few notes on the outreach part of our program. I am ordering some more copies of the Spits and Sticks book. I have recently donated copies to a school in Winnipeg and the town library in Carmen. I gave a short talk to the children of École St Avila in Winnipeg on the resident Chimney Swifts found there during the past summer.

Finally, it is always great to bring swift stories from Canada and the wider world to the attention of our supporters and there have been a couple of stories bought to my attention today. The first of these is from a website called the Birding Wire. Scroll to the bottom of the homepage and there is a story about Chimney Swifts in West Virginia. Always great to here of the considerable energy that communities across North America make for Chimney Swifts.

The other story relates to a blog from the UK from a chap called Mark Avery, formerly Director of Conservation at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. In a guest blog, we can see what artificial habitat looks like for the Common Swift. I am sure everyone can agree that it looks a lot less complicated than Chimney Swift habitat!

— Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Habitat Stewardship and Outreach Coordinator

2016 recap (from Nature Manitoba News)

Chimney Swift Season 2016

A recap from our partner program MCSI

By: Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator

2016 has been a busy and successful year for the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative and as the first snows of winter finally join us, this seems to be an opportune moment for an update to the Nature Manitoba membership.

Monitoring Successes

There are a large number of stories generated by volunteers spending dozens of hours peering at chimneys in search of a plunging swift and there is not really space enough to cover all of these in this piece. However, there are a few which are too good to pass up!

Manitoba’s first recorded shared nest and roost chimney was discovered at the Assiniboine School by volunteers David Wiebe and Adolf Ens. This is an unusual not unheard of occurrence in other parts of their range. Sharing a nest site with another hundred or so swifts seems a little uncomfortable!
Nature Manitoba member John Hays certainly caught the Chimney Swift bug earlier this summer, uncovering at least four previously unknown nest and roost sites in the area between the Health Science Centre and Exchange District. IBA summer student, Marshall Birch also got in on the act, helping to discover another three.
Discovering new sites in towns where we already know swifts are present is one thing, discovering them in new places is something completely different. Thanks to Manitoba Sustainable Development biologist Ken De Smet, we were able to add Manitou and Stonewall to our list of settlements with swifts. There were also swifts seen flying around in The Pas, only the second time this has been recorded.
St Adolphe continues to be the centre of a hive of activity, not least thanks to St Adolphe volunteers, and critical partners in MCSI, Barb and Rob Stewart. Chicks only fledged from the church in 2016, although some of the latest breeding attempts were made on record thanks to delays in breeding likely bought about due to less than satisfactory weather in June.
Our volunteers continue to astound us. In late May, during an apocalyptic downpour, Beth Hiltz and David Wiebe recorded our largest entry of the season, with 156 swifts entering the chimney at the Assiniboine School. Across Manitoba, volunteers have driven this program with enthusiasm.

Building for success

Thanks to funding from Environment Canada, we are able to repair damaged chimneys, retaining these critical habitats for Chimney Swifts. Without this funding, we risk the loss of these chimneys as they either collapse or are demolished. In 2016, MCSI have repaired five chimneys in Selkirk, Winnipeg and St Norbert. We are always looking out for new projects and more funding to ensure that we can continue with this program in future years.

Champions Galore!

Since 2014, MCSI has begun handing out plaques to some of our most distinguished building owners and volunteers. Swift Champions are those who have shown a demonstrable commitment to the conservation of Manitoba’s Chimney Swift population. In 2016 we have presented 6 plaques to landowners. We have also begun to present plaques to volunteers and we are pleased to announce that we are going to present plaques to a few groups of volunteers who have contributed hugely to MCSI knowledge through their monitoring programs at different sites. These volunteers do regular season-long monitoring at some of Manitoba’s largest roost sites and in no particular order are:

The Selkirk Birdwatching Club
David Wiebe (Assiniboine School volunteer)
Adolf Ens (Assiniboine School volunteer)
Ken Wainwright (Dauphin volunteer)
Gord Ogilvie (Portage la Prairie volunteer)
Lewis Cocks (MCSI founder)

And finally

Thanks once more to all our volunteers and the support of our partner organisations – MCSI would be nothing without the incredible support we receive from all of you. We look forward to a successful 2017!

(courtesy Nature Manitoba News-December 2016)

Swifts in the News

There are a couple of stories in the news recently which may perk up peoples interest. The first is a mention of our Swift Champions Program (http://www.mbchimneyswift.ca/champion.html) in an article on CBC Manitoba about grouse populations in southern Manitoba. Here is the link.

Another example of swifts in the news has winged its way to us from Sweden via the Washington Post. Unsurprisingly for any swift aficionados out there, it turns out that this incredible group of birds are world record holders in their own rights, thanks to spending an absolutely mind-boggling 10 consecutive months on the wing. That’s correct, some Common Swifts from Sweden do not leave the sky for 10 whole months and can fly over 10,000 miles without a single break. Wow! The impressive feat can be found in a piece packed full of interesting information by clicking on this link.

Tim Poole