Swift Champions 2024

Spring has sprung, and migration is in full swing! According to eBird, Canada’s first Chimney Swift of 2024 was spotted in Toronto on April 9^th. It won’t be long until they’re back in Winnipeg! Stay tuned for updates on the upcoming season.

It’s time to unveil our 2024 Swift Champions! Every year, we celebrate different community members for their contributions to Chimney Swift conservation. This year, we are celebrating three volunteers that have contributed many years of time and energy to Chimney Swift conservation.

Gerald Machnee

Gerald Machnee has been coordinating the Selkirk Birdwatchers Club’s monitoring efforts in Selkirk for several years. The Selkirk Birdwatchers Club received a ‘Swift Champions’ award as a group back in 2017 for all the incredible monitoring that they do, and this year we wanted to recognize Gerald Machnee individually for all the work he does coordinating all the volunteers, gathering everyone’s data, and sending in reports. Thanks to his efforts (and all the volunteers in Selkirk), the new artificial towers at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre (SMHC) have been monitored weekly throughout the breeding season. Gerald also monitors several sites himself and is passionate about public outreach – he loves to hand out MCSI factsheets while monitoring at Lower Fort Garry.

Thanks Gerald!

Katharine Schulz

Katharine Schulz has been volunteering with MCSI for years, and has helped immensely with our Chimney Swift conservation efforts in various ways. We wanted to extend a special thank you to Katharine for painstakingly taking photos of every Chimney Swift site in Souris for our photo database. Katharine had also spotted some Chimney Swifts in Hartney, and suspected there was a site there that hadn’t been discovered yet. With patience and time, she discovered that the Chimney Swifts were using the Hart-Cam Museum, therefore adding a new site to our database!   

Thanks Katharine!

Blair Reid

Blair Reid is a long-time MCSI volunteer. He regularly monitors sites around Saint-Boniface throughout the breeding season, collecting valuable information on which chimneys are being used by swifts for nesting. This year, Blair was a huge help with our goal of confirming the presence of Chimney Swifts at sites in danger of losing their ‘residence’ status (and thus their associated legal protection). Blair was able to confirm Chimney Swifts at 4 sites on our priority list, meaning that those 4 sites are now protected for at least 3 more years! In total, he monitored 11 different sites in 2023.

Thanks Blair!

Thank you to our Swift Champions, and to all our other volunteers who keep this program going! We are very grateful.

-Marissa