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
