Finally, we always give a full section to the latest happenings in St Adolphe. As ever, it is over to Barb.
‘It has been another action packed week in St Adolphe – one that was punctuated by two severe weather events. Sat. and Sun., July 6-7, heavy smoke from forest fires in NW Ontario created difficult feeding conditions. All 5 pairs of breeding swifts showed marked reduction in their attendance at the nest sites. On Monday, feeding frequency improved and shorter between-visit intervals for incubating exchanges were seen, so all the birds dodged the smoke challenge.
Then the challenge shifted to rain – lots of it. On Mon., July 8, there was a teaser storm with about 1/4″. But things got extreme Tues. afternoon through to Wed. morning. Torrents of rain fell through much of the province, with over 2″ landing in St Adolphe. The problem with heavy rain is two fold. First, aerial insects get washed down or blown away, so foraging by the adults is limited (they will feed happily during rain showers but don’t like to venture into electrical storms with high winds). Second, sheet wash can loosen the nests from the wall of the chimneys and a very unfortunate Humpty Dumpty variant can occur.
Good news prevailed. All 5 nests survived the deluge of the Tues. night storm – activity was seen at every chimney on Swift Watch Wednesday.
Milestones for the week include the hatching of Main St eggs on the morning of Tues., July 9; the between-visit interval decreased noticeably and some low flyovers with head movements took place.
More good news arrived on Wed., July 10, when signs of hatching were seen at Brodeur Bros. = a marked increase in activity at the site and the giveaway peer ‘n’ veer flyovers took place. The Main St and Brodeur Bros. sites were active when last checked on Thurs. morning (July 11).
The Church young are non-brooded (older than 6-7 days) as are the juveniles in the SE and NE Club Amical sites.
As more adults feed non-brooded young, and are both out of the chimney at the same time, the social interactions between them will increase again. On Wednesday night, Rob and I enjoyed watching a group of 4-5 swifts – they were socializing (aptly) low over Le Club Amical. There was a lot of chittering and conversations to be heard. A pair flying very close together each flashed the “V” display with wings held high. And yes, there were the occasional snoopy look-see flyovers of the chimneys to check out the young ones in the nest.
During the low flyovers, we noticed that some adults had notches or discontinuities in their trailing wing margins. Moulting has started. Being able to see those gaps where feathers have been shed is a reliable way to distinguish adult Chimney Swifts. When fledging takes place, at Day 28-30, the juveniles have intact wing margins. They will not be strong flies compared to the adults, so fledglings are fairly easy to tell apart by flying talents alone. But it will only take days before flight proficiency develops and the best way to tell fledglings apart from adults is to get a look at those wings.
On our next wild and wonderful Swift Watch Wednesday (July 17), the Church juveniles will be about 21 days old. It will be a good time to remind ourselves of what the three week olds are up to (and down to and up to)…‘
Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator
