A SOGGY VARIATION OF NO-MOW MAY IS LINKED TO CHIMNEY SWIFT MONITORING! WHO KNEW?
In our area of the Red River valley south of Winnipeg, as is the case in many other locations in Manitoba this spring, there will be a huge variation of the no-mow May routine. Roads and yards and fields are underwater. We are happy to have the newly arrived Canada Geese pluck the sprouting grass from the exposed portions of our flood-protected hill. Sadly, farmers dealing with flood waters inundating fields face a no-sow spring. While the current boating season interferes with our personal start to the ‘22 Chimney Swift monitoring season, we’re lucky to have Amanda & Tim & Jo step in and help out with the spring to-do list in St Adolphe and Lower Fort Garry.
For all of you mobile monitors, particularly those of you who will track nest sites, here’s the check list to get underway (not all points are applicable to all folks):
- Ensure chimneys are sealed except for the top opening. Chimney Swifts fall victim to light seduction – they are drawn out of chimney shafts by daylight seen through old, exposed duct work or open bottomed hearths etc.
- Close your damper(s); keep a screen in place in front of the fire box.
- Block/plug any gaps or cracks in the chimney masonry.
- Seal and secure any openings e.g., face plates for old duct work.
- Block access to ash pits located below the fire box.
- Close doors to the cleanout trap(s).
- Familiarize yourself with the MCSI protocols for monitoring and save the dates that Amanda has sent you for the NRMP and MCSI programs https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/news-and-posts/ ; May 3rd – 2022 Monitoring on the Horizon.
- Consider extra monitoring to establish arrival dates. To know when the Chimney Swifts arrive, we need to know when they aren’t here! Those precious “0”, zero, nada, naught, zip, zilch counts from early-days monitoring helps establish the absence of swifts. It is often cold and usually tedious monitoring to see nothing, but it is all so valuable to narrow the window of true arrival.
- Arriving Chimney Swifts will feed locally and rest for the night in chimneys – at roost and nest sites. Depending on arrival dates, weather conditions, and insect availability etc., a breeding pair laying claim to a nest site may only use the chimney for roosting for a few days or weeks (e.g., in the spring of 2021, St. Adolphe swifts arrived May 14th but did not nest build until May 27-June 4).
- Nest building is defined by daytime use (entries/exits).
Once your reports of arriving Chimney Swifts start flowing in to Amanda, we’ll review behaviour seen during the nest building stage. Good luck in the days and nights ahead,
— Barb
We’ve seen insect eating birds like swallows occupying nest boxes already in the Dauphin area so the swifts should not be that far behind. Flooding might affect us humans getting around but it also means a lot more insect habitat allowing eggs laid in years gone by to finally hatch which could be a favorable increase in swift forage (and an increase in sales of repellent to us observers). May those Colorado Lows bring favorable winds to assist swifts in their northern migration as our daylight hours get longer.