The following was sent to us by Barb Stewart in St Adolphe
An act of penance for missing out on the cold, soggy, windy NRMP-1 night on May 22 put a lot of perspective on the swift situation in St Adolphe! I monitored all 5 nest sites in town on Thursday, May 23rd…
During 2 hours of monitoring, between 11:15 AM and 1:15 PM, no entries or exits were seen at Main St, Brodeurs, or the SE Club Amical sites. YES – as Marshall knows, there is a lot of head-snapping, eye-shifting work that goes to multi-site monitoring but the vertigo can be worth it. The maximum seen in the air was 6 swifts for sure and there was a tantalizing glimpse of what seemed to be 7 at a distance.
Moving over to the Club Amical for focused gazing at the chimneys between 1:40 and 2:40 PM, the temperature had risen from 17 to 21 C; the wind was gentle and the flying insects obvious. Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, and Barn Swallows were all busy feeding. The swifts started to enter the nest sites. Around 1:45 PM, an entry/exit was made in the SE Club, then another similar cycle occurred, followed eventually by a pair entering and leaving together. The pair was very busy nest building.
Toward the end of observation at Club Amical, a very confident sighting of 7 Chimney Swifts took place. Then a single swift entered the NE Club Amical chimney = the first documented use of the site this year. After two minutes, the NE Club swift made an exit and flew away alone.
Back in the evening for monitoring the Church, from 6:35 PM to 7:45 PM, I saw a single bird over cemetery/church several times and groups of 5 swifts racing about the area. Several low flyovers with last minute veering off took place over the Church chimney rim. Finally, a single swift entered around 7:30 and left after staying a few minutes. So daytime use continues.
In 2019, we are in year 13 of Chimney Swift monitoring – lucky for us. It has been a journey of discovery based on curiosity and a whole lot of hard work. I was inspired by Sheldon and Penny’s Big Bang Theory conversation to remind myself that “THE ONLY CONSTANT IN LIFE IS CHANGE” (Heraclitus of Ephesus; c. 500 BCE). One of the best ways to understand change in the Chimney Swift world is to look in the rear view mirror…
Why were the swifts not using the nest sites until mid-afternoon Thursday? Likely, they needed a good stretch of solid feeding following a challenging Wednesday. Energy reserves get depleted when the abundance of flying insects is low due to rain, cold temperatures, and winds.
Why is the occupation of nest sites in 2019 not following the typical loading sequence? The Church remains as the number 1 destination in town. But the SE Club Amical and Brodeur sites usually get used AFTER the resident pair at the NE Club Amical and Main St chimneys have returned. In 2018, there was a successful breeding attempt at the SE Club Amical site. For the first time since monitoring began, fledglings flew out of that chimney. But they didn’t call the SE Club chimney home for much longer and the family group went over to the Brodeur Bros. chimney for about a week. The early returning swifts at both of those sites in 2019 could reflect last year’s success and movement between chimneys.
As for Main St., there were successful breeding attempts for three successive years – 2016, 2017, and 2018. Swifts are thought to return to the same chimney year after year…so, the breeding pair at Main St would be at least turning 5 years old this summer – perhaps their natural longevity has been reached?
As the weather warms over the next few days, the group size in St Adolphe will increase hopefully. The next milestone is to get a breeding pair established in the NE Club Amical and Main St chimneys. The recipe for successful breeding is to have nest building underway by a pair of Chimney Swifts by June 3rd. If anyone is watching a potential nest site, the next 10 days should be very active in the daytime – well, as long as the swifts are well fed!
All the best from the valley, Barb.
