As the summer begins to wind down, there were still numerous reports of swifts in Manitoba to keep us busy. We will still have swifts into next week, so why not take a final look before they depart on their long journey south?
We return to St Adolphe to begin this weeks report. Barb had the ultimate in rude awakenings, as she tells us here:
‘Wednesday August 7th was a wild ‘n’ wonderful morning in St Adolphe. It was Day 30 for the Main St juveniles and time to fledge. The youngsters obliged with a brief aerial parade over the condominiums just north of their natal site. The day before, the adults were significantly more active in the chimney (4 entry/exits per hour which isn’t high, but it was double the frequency seen lately). Thursday’s wind was blowing a couple of juveniles around in the morning and things were really tough to track. So the best estimate for now is that 2-3 fledglings are airborne from the Main St nest site.
It is always a pleasure chatting with passersby, as was the case Wednesday. Two people asked about how juveniles find their way up and out of the chimney. One person was quite happy at the prospect of having the baby birds, which were sounding off in their chimney – loud enough to be heard in the kitchen, move along to the exterior too! HUH? Our conversation took an unexpected turn, as did my car when I made my way to old town to check out a roof top. Barely out of the vehicle, an obviously moulting adult Chimney Swift swooped over a terra cotta collar extending above a brick chimney. The swift hovered to align itself, then dropped in! Another swift dropped in seconds later! My eyes were wide and my head was feeling overwhelmed. Here I am, thirteen years into MCSI monitoring and thinking all the sites in St Adolphe were “known”. But in front of me was definitely a newly identified nest site! I’m not sure who was in a deeper state of shock – me or the homeowners.
As it turns out, the homeowners heard similar baby bird noises in 2018. So the chimney appears to have been occupied by swifts for at least two consecutive seasons. At season’s end, we will be taking a closer look at the terra cotta collar, chimney side wall material, dimensions, and all that will help educate us on what makes this chimney attractive to swifts. Clearly, other candidate chimneys in old town St Adolphe could be lurking. Time to step back, take a breath, and start thinking about how best to approach 2020’s research project!’
Strangely, we always considered that St Adolphe sites were all known. How wrong we were!
Ken sent us an update from Dauphin as well on Wednesday:
‘Well, today I took it on myself to monitor the 3 Dauphin chimneys as all other observers are now busier as summer winds down. Both the nesting chimneys I monitored for an hour during the day and then the roost was done during the roosting hour.
Both nesting chimneys are still occupied but entries are well spread out as it appears that insects might be at a premium in our area, in one case, there was 30+ minutes between entries with the swift only being in the chimney for under a minute. For both sites there was also 2 entries within a minute of each other indicating both parents are out actively sourcing food for the young.
The roosting chimney was very quiet when after 20 minutes of watching, there was an exit; 15 minutes later an entry and 5 minutes later another exit, is there a nest in the roost? About 10 minutes after sunset, there were suddenly 8 then 14 swifts flying overhead and just as quick 11 went down the roost chimney and then 1 more leaving 2 unaccounted for that may have gone to one or the other nesting chimney for the night. There was no indication that any young swifts might be about as all entries were straight in without hesitation.’
Cal sent an interesting update from Portage la Prairie:
‘This evening (Aug 7) Gord and myself covered the Rufous Prince Building and Trinity United Church respectively. Gord ended up with a total of 6 swifts settling in for the night with 4 in the south chimney and 2 in the north one.’
We definitely appear to have some young about to fledge soon. Here’s what I came up with, all in the south chimney as usual:
8:30 6 flying over the Church
8:34 1 entry
8:35 1 exit
8:37 1 exit
8:42 2 entries
8:44 2 exits
8:45 9 flying over the Church
8:54 2 entries
8:55 2 exits
9:01 2 entries
9:03 1 entry
9:05 2 exits
9:13 1 entry
9:13 1 exit
9:14 1 entry
9:18 1 entry
9:18 1 exit
9:22 1 entry
9:23 1 exit
9:28 1 entry
Busy night!’
In Brandon, Margaret and Millie sent this update:
‘We were downtown yesterday Aug 6, and stopped in the lane just north of the Orange Block for less than 10 min. There was 1 entry and 1 exit in that time and definitely by 2 different swifts.’
Over to Lower Fort Garry, and Gerald sent the following dated this morning:
‘I was at the farm house from 8:20 PM to 9:30 PM. There was no activity at the house or the building to the east where they are digging. I sat to the south of the house so I could watch the east building inside the walls as well. I had two entries at 8:46 PM and at 9:20 PM.’
To Winnipeg, and Barbara and Phil sent an Osborne Village update:
‘It looks as though the young have fledged at Clarke, judging from the botched entries! Phil watched the Moxham chimney. It’s a little confusing, as on Google Earth the chimney appears to be in the middle of the roof, but the one he watched (maybe not from the best viewing point) is on the NE corner of the building. There was certainly a great deal of low flying activity in that direction that I could see from my place. Most of the earlier high-flying activity was over Fort Rouge Park and the river. Very little vocalizing.’
In Point Douglas, Frank and Jacquie checked chimneys at 515 and 527 Waterfront. The chimney at the rear of 527 had some entries and exits, and may warrant a return visit to confirm successful nesting.
In East Kildonan, Rudolf sent this quick update:
‘Once again a number of swifts were overhead at Kildonan Drive between Irving Place and Cheriton this evening. They have been a regular feature; at least 9 birds this time.’
Bob and Valerie were out in St James:
‘We eventually went to look again at the chimney at the Silver Heights Apartments this evening and saw a lot of activity, although apparently no indication of fledging yet. ‘
Blair was again doing some excellent monitoring, and had a great deal to report:
‘I did a small blitz in St. Boniface in the last 4 days, since my wife was away on a trip.
Tonight, I checked two new chimneys
- 180 de la Cathedrale – Part of St. Boniface U
- 228 Hamel – Aulneau Renewal Centre
but no Swifts were seen in the area.
The next three locations were Chimneys that previously had a pair of Swifts occupying them this season.
- 188 St. Mary’s – had only one entry in the hour between, 30 minutes before and after sunset.
- 340 Provencher – had an entry and exit, followed by 3 entries for the night, possibly a new Swift fledged.
- 261 Youville – had two entry/exit events, about 2 minutes apart, then the two adults entered for the night, both at the 9:13 minute. Seems to be still feeding.’
Kristyn at the Assiniboine Park Zoo sent this:
‘Here is the chimney swift survey completed on August 8 at Assiniboine Park. There were two cooper’s hawks hunting a squirrel quite close to the chimney during the survey. I saw one swift fly into the chimney, but did not see any come out.’
And if you are still here, Tim completed a downtown blitz on Thursday night:
‘I hit thrilling Thursday this evening, a multi-site blitz around downtown. I started at the Kennedy apartment and managed to get 2 entry exit cycles in this chimney, so feeding still going there. I also tried to keep an eye on two adjacent chimneys, one a tall apartment which hosted a nesting pair in 2018. There certainly seemed to be possible interest here on a couple of occasions.
I left at 9 because I wanted to check if the fall roost had formed at 303 Assiniboine. Nothing here, but I wandered to another chimney which has 2 flues, a bust cage and a tile top, found by John Hays about this time last year. A pair were really active overtop and soon entered the bust cage side. After this, a swift entered the tile side and quickly left. A minute later 2 swifts entered the tile side again, one stayed and the other left and headed towards 303 Assiniboine. A third entered the cage side, so likely in my opinion we had a successful breeding here (John recorded similar strange behaviour in 2018).
Back to the first spot, and I caught a last single swift enter the tall apartment, confirming use here for this year.
So 3 chimneys and 4 flues occupied this evening!’
–Tim Poole
Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator
