The first week of fledging!

While figuring out anything to do with Chimney Swifts is difficult due to the hidden nature of their lives within the chimney, with careful watch (and investigation after the fact) we can sometimes determine when and if fledging of Chimney Swift young occurred. This year, we have our first two fledging events seen in St Adolphe by Barb Stewart. The first was at the Church chimney where the young left the chimney slightly early (day 27 as opposed to day 30) but Barb was able to see the young flying with at least one adult bird for comparison. The second nest in St Adolphe on Main St fledged on August 3rd! Our other way of determining nest success is to look in the chimney once the birds have left. Often the nest will fall as they are usually only used for a summer and then re-built the next year. In that fallen nest we can find clues such as unhatched eggs or eggshell fragments that we can use to piece together how many eggs were laid, how many chicks hatched, and how many chicks successfully fledged. All this to say, if you are watching a nesting chimney, keep your eyes peeled this week!

With that said, let’s move on to our monitoring recap of last week! We had volunteers out monitoring in Portage La Prairie, Brandon, Lower Fort Garry, Lockport, Selkirk, Dauphin, Souris and Winnipeg.

Gordon Oglivie and Janice Madill monitored the three chimneys on the Rufus Prince Building in Portage La Prairie on the evening of July 28^th from 9:00-10:00pm. They had 10 swifts go down the centre chimney, three swifts go down the north chimney and four swifts go down the south chimney. Gordon noted to me in an email that this is a higher-than-normal number of swifts for this site.

Also on July 28^th Louanne Reid and Glennis Lewis watched their normal chimneys on the Orange Block building in Brandon. Louanne was on the north chimney during the roosting period. There were two swifts that entered the chimney together, with one subsequent exit. There was a pause in observation for about five minutes, but as far as we know there was only one swift that was in the chimney for the night. The Peregrine Falcons continued to be out and about nearby at the site as well.

Glennis was on the west chimney on the same building (also for the roosting period). Her observations were more straightforward – still looking like the swifts are feeding the young. Her observations started off with a swift leaving the chimney almost right away, followed by another entry and exit, and then one more exit (so there were two swifts in the chimney when she started). After that there were three more entry/ exit pairs before she finished her 60-minute observation period with one swift down the chimney.

We had quite a bit of action in the nesting chimney at Lower Fort Garry last week! On Thursday (July 19^th), I had a phone call from Joanne Tuckwell at Parks Canada that staff had heard the young swifts calling from inside the chimney. In the past when staff heard the chicks, it has meant that the nest had fallen from the chimney wall. The staff were understandably worried again! Luckily, in a twist of fate Rob and Barb Stewart were at the Fort at the very same time monitoring the Chimney Swifts for our program! They were observing in real time, normal feeding cycles (three in 70 minutes), letting us know that despite the noise the young were doing fine (to the best of our knowledge). We think that the swifts had reached the point where they can leave the nest and move around the chimney (around 21 days old) and had simply moved down the chimney toward the (blocked) opening and were vigorous making noise in response to feeding.

Gerald Machnee was back at the chimney on July 27^th for a combination of daytime and roosting hour monitoring. He had two entries a couple minutes apart, followed by one exit a couple minutes after that, still showing that swifts were going into the chimney to (presumably) feed young.

On July 28^th Rob and Barb were back at the Fort for a morning monitoring period where they saw five sets of entries and exits in just under two hours.

On July 30^th Ariel watched the Fort chimney for 90 minutes during the morning and saw five feeding cycles in 90 minutes of monitoring.

Finally, Gerald was back on August 2nd from 1:10- 2:10 pm and saw one entry/ exit cycle. We continue to watch this site in hopes of having successful fledging this year out of this challenging chimney!

Gerald and Tim Verbiwski monitored the two chimneys on the St Andrews Lock and Dam maintenance compound building from 8:00- 10:00 pm. At the north chimney they had two entries at 8:18 pm, one exit at 8:36 pm, and then another two entries at 8:51 pm. They then had one exit at 8:52 pm and a final entry almost 30 minutes later (ending with three swifts in the chimney). At the south chimney they observed two entries around 8:45 pm, followed by another at 9:15 pm with a final quick entry and exit at 9:20 pm (ending with one swift in the chimney). This leaves us with four swifts using the building to roost.

In Selkirk Winona watched the St Merchants Hotel for an hour around noon on July 24th. She had five (assumed) feeding cycles in an hour. Glad to see them going strong. While we don’t know the timing for sure, this is a site to keep an eye on for fledging!

At the Selkirk Mental Health Centre monitoring took place on July 28^th. Robert Hempler watched the infirmary chimney from 9:00-9:45 pm and had a number of entries and exits with the last entry at 9:30 pm. Robert was also watching the artificial tower attached to the infirmary building and had one entry there at 9:30 pm as well.

Nia was watching the yellow brick chimney at the Centre on the same night. She had a surprising monitoring observation with four sets of entries and exits in 60 minutes, before two swifts went down the chimney for the night. If there was nesting in this chimney it likely would have had to start after July 15^th (all chimneys/ towers at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre were watched in a morning blitz and no activity was seen at the yellow brick chimney). If these are indeed late nesters, hopefully they make it to the finish line. Stay tuned for updates on this one!

Ken Wainright did a spot check on the Dauphin roosting chimney on July 30^th. His observations were, “There were no swifts until after sunset and then a flock of about 10 arrived. When I finished observing there was the odd swift flying around but not going down, however I had counted 13 that did go down. The sky was smoky and the sun was a red/orange colour which may have affected the birds’ return to the chimney.”

We also heard about Dauphin’s new nest site (discovered last week at the Hong Kong Café). Ken mentioned that they were seeing feeding rates of at least six times per hour!

Katharine Shultz spent some time in Souris last week and kindly did some monitoring for us in town! She watched the chimney of the Whistling Donkey Pub on July 24^th and July 25^th for abbreviated monitoring sessions. I had watched this chimney when I was in Souris earlier this summer for grassland bird surveys – so it was a delight to see that the nesting swifts are still going strong. For her first 35-minute session Katharine observed a variety of entries and exits in the early part of the evening (approximately 9:30- 9:44 pm) which when counted up led to three swifts in and out of the chimney. After 9:45 more swifts headed down the chimney for a total of seven roosting for the night. Katharine also wrote, “I believe these earlier entry/ exits were still feeding runs that have been observed frequently ongoing earlier in the day and prior to formally beginning the monitoring session”. She also noted more swifts in the air further towards the west, where we do have more swift chimneys noted from past years. On July 25^th at the same chimney Katharine saw an entry/ exit cycle approximately every five minutes as she watched the chimney for 15 minutes.

On July 22nd Garry Budyk watched his local nesting site at 722 Watt St for a morning monitoring session. The swifts on site have been feeding young for multiple weeks now too, so keeping our fingers crossed for successful fledge soon! He continued to see feeding behavior. His session started with an exit at 9:30 am, then two entries at 10:04 am and 10:13 am. He then had an exit at 10:25 am, and entry at 10:28 am and ending with another exit at 10:40 am. It is interesting to note that one swift seemed to stay in the chimney for 15 minutes (and possibly longer since we can not differentiate between individuals).

Also on July 22^nd, Ariel monitored 71 Kennedy St (Scarsdale Apartments) for 90 minutes. Chimney Swifts had previously been observed here by Ariel and Tim Poole, but no swifts were seen this time. This is a difficult spot to monitor due to the viewing angles so hopefully the swifts were just coming and going in a way that is hard to see, or fledged, but we do not know for sure.

Tim Poole was out for a bike ride during the late afternoon of July 26th and caught a lucky entry at Clarence Court Apartments (526 Walker Ave). Or perhaps those swifts are just working hard to feed their young, as Vicky had a very active monitoring session there previously! Regardless, once Tim saw the entry, he waited to see the exit, which happened just one minute later.

Frank and Jacquie Machovec monitored two new chimneys for our program on July 28^th. Both chimneys were visible from the same spot. The first was at 217 Sherbrook St. No swifts were seen or heard in the vicinity of that chimney. The second chimney was at 198 Furby St. Tim Poole had been biking past here and thought he saw an exit (have you caught onto Tim’s pattern of biking and swifting?) so Frank and Jacquie took up the post and had two early entries for the night at 8:30 pm.

Blair watched the swifts at 690 St Joseph from 1:58 – 3:35 pm on July 28^th. Both Blair and the swifts were braving the afternoon heat. He saw four entry/ exit cycles in 35 minutes, so the swifts were busy feeding young despite the temperature. He also saw five swifts circling in the sky.

In Winnipeg, I checked out Nelson McIntyre Colligate with a friend on July 29th after seeing some swifts out and about during an evening BBQ a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, there were no swifts to be seen or heard.

On July 30^th I checked out the Marion Hotel, a historic site for our program that has not been watched yet this year, during the day. There were almost constantly 2-10 swifts overhead flying from northeast to southwest. None were low to the chimney though. My next thought was to follow the swifts! So I checked google maps on my phone and saw that another site (Springs Christian Academy) was nearby and headed over there. Earlier in the year Blair Reid had spotted two swifts using the site during the MCSI monitoring nights, but a subsequent monitoring session by Frank and Jacquie Machovec on July 7^th had not picked up on swifts. Despite the hot weather (by now it was around noon) I was able to watch a swift exit and enter the chimney for four feeding sessions in an hour. This accounts for two of the swifts I saw, but while monitoring I saw a maximum of 12 swifts. We are not sure right now where the other swifts belong. Perhaps at undiscovered sites? Perhaps they belong to the big roost on River Ave? This story is to be continued…

Vicky continued to do daytime Chimney Swift monitoring for some sites that do not have a monitor through the summer. Unfortunately, she ended up with no signs of swifts at several sites (303 Assiniboine Ave, 52 Donald St, 346 Broadway, 2415 Portage Ave, 3219 Portage, 155 Traill Ave and 239 Colony St). However, at the same time she noted some nearby chimneys that she thought could merit at watch next year including 219 Colony St, a private residence on Balmoral St and 165 Kennedy St. None of these sites had swifts this year (the residence on Balmoral had swifts overhead though), but you never know what next year will hold, so it is good to have a record of these additional candidate sites.

Moving on to where Vicky did see swifts! She had two entries during a morning monitoring session at 348 Assiniboine Ave on July 23^rd and noted them as doing “super dives!”. She also spotted nine more swifts flying over the river southeast of her viewing spot.

On July 26^th she watched the chimney on St Paul the Apostle Parish in St James in the morning. She saw two feeding cycles (quick entries/ exits) before a second swift popped out of the chimney nearing the end of her monitoring period. This site has not been monitored before this session this year, so we don’t have an estimate fledging time, but it is good to know it is being used as nest site.

On July 27^th she had two sites with Chimney Swifts. The first one she watched was the Granite Curling Club. Here she saw one feeding exchange in the hour she watched. One feeding exchange an hour can be enough to sustain a nest, although we more often hope to see 2-4x an hour. Then from noon to 1:00pm she watched the Ladywood Apartments and saw one entry at 12:46pm. With no exit it may be that the Chimney Swift was taking refuge from the heat (30^oC at monitoring start).

Stay cool and keep your eyes on the skies for newly fledged Chimney Swifts!

• Amanda