Finally, to an extra long update from Barb in St Adolphe, this week being an amalgamation of two reports!
It’s been another event filled week at the nest sites in St Adolphe. Here are some highlights of activity for the stretch beyond Wed. July 10th through to Tues. July 16th.
Sat. July 13: The Snoopy Gang of 4 was cruising Main St. Repeated low, veer ‘n’ peer passes were made over the Main St. chimney in between feeding bouts. This suggested uncovered nestlings were in the nest but the entry/exit sequences did not indicate non-brooding i.e., the adults were not out of the chimney at the same time (by my calculation, it was only Day 5). Perhaps the adults in the chimney were clinging to the wall beside the nest. On the other end of the spectrum, no adults were seen attending the NE Club Amical site during the hour when the SE Club adults fed their non-brooded young 3 times.
Sun. July 14: another early morning storm blew through; between 5-9 AM, 1″ of rain fell. Monitoring was delayed to mid-afternoon and, unfortunately, the NE Club swifts were not in attendance again. That was a sign of trouble and nest failure, especially as the SE Club pair were in show-off mode with a feeding rate of 7 X hour! Some patch of insects was close by. Here’s what the feeding frenzy looked like for the SE Club Amical swifts:
NOTICE HOW THE BETWEEN-VISIT INTERVAL STRETCHES OUT AS THE HEAT OF THE DAY DESCENDS; both adults were out on occasion, both were in the chimney at times, and sometimes just 1 was inside.
Mon. July 15: between 8-9 AM another severe electrical storm bore down, dumping a 1/2″ of rain.
Tues. July 16: Back to the Club and the script being written wasn’t what I expected. Monitoring between 6:09 – 7:39 PM, yielded this scenario (summarized so Frank, our webmaster, doesn’t go crazy formatting the action): 3 consecutive entries showed that a helper was onsite at the SE Club Amical – the feeding rate was 8 X hour! Maybe the helper was on site Sunday too but not identified in the entry/exit sequence. A swift entered the NE Club chimney at the start of the session and stayed for over 85 minutes. Ah – could one of the partners of the failed nesting attempt be helping at the SE site? Nope! Seconds after the first swift left the NE chimney, a second swift flew out. Cue the CSI music for the SE helper = “Who, who are you?” Although the NE pair was in attendance, their behaviour was not consistent with feeding juveniles, so the nesting attempt has failed.
During the week of the 8th, we were to look ahead for the ups and downs and ups of life in the chimney…beyond the adults entering and leaving, and the sad downside of nest failures, there was also uplifting progress with juvenile development. Wed. July 17th neared the inflection point of my favourite event inside the chimney. As juveniles approach 20-21 days of age, they transfer out of the nest and onto the chimney wall…as they cling to the rough interior wall, their wings get flapping and flight muscles get exercised. Then, practice flights up and down the shaft take place. It sure takes the stress away knowing that rain storms would now only dislodge an empty nest.
For the span of July 16 – 24th, trouble brewed in the valley – two more nest failures were confirmed. The Brodeur Bros. and Church adults stopped attending the chimneys. With the earlier demise of the NE Club Amical nesting attempt, a 60% loss has occurred now in St Adolphe.
However, a silver lining was revealed. A helper has come to the assistance of the Main St pair. Here’s what the data looked like on Monday, July 22:
START OF OBSERVATION: 10:15 AM
10:23:39 ENTRY
10:24:40 ENTRY (2 IN)
10:25:46 EXIT (1 IN)
10:40:20 ENTRY (2 IN)
10:44:65 ENTRY (3 IN! = HELPER ON SITE)
10:44:44 EXIT (2 IN)
11:03:42 ENTRY (3 IN)
11:04:09 EXIT (2 IN)
END OF OBSERVATION: 11:15 AM
The feeding rate of 5 X per hour is excellent! This will be immensely beneficial to moving the juveniles along to liftoff.
The breeding pair at the SE Club Amical nest site, plus the helper bird, are stuffing insects into hungry mouths at a rate of ~ 6-8 X per hour. We are closing in on fledging day. The adults will begin to lure the juveniles to the top of the chimney – you may see an sudden increase of quick entry/exit activity or low flyovers with stalls above the rim.
This week, it will be time to start watching for fledglings on Day 28-30 post-hatch. The Church and SE Club Amical juveniles are due to fledge between July 25-27 and July 26-30 respectively. What gives a fledgling away? Intact trailing wing margins if you are lucky enough to see them. But the flight characteristics of fledglings are very different from experienced adult fliers. The youngsters have slow air speed despite lots of wing flapping; they make big broad turns – no fancy acrobatics; flying is usually on one plane – think of novice car drivers on their point and drive trajectories; tentative, slow approaches to a chimney are made before dropping in close to the rim – but sometimes fledglings miss altogether and fall down the outside face of the chimney!
In between aerial outings, fledglings use their natal chimney, or another one closeby (last year, the SE Club fledglings/parents moved en masse over to the Brodeur Bros. site ~ daytime and roosting ~ before relocating back to the SE Club), to rest and be fed. Not all fledglings come out of the chimney on the same day; they may take a recovery day to rest from their initiation to the sky. Activity patterns become very unpredictable now…
…expect the unexpected. You may witness fledging day “parades” or unescorted forays. Practice, practice, practice is required to develop flight proficiency – simple aerial flight characteristics (no major adjustments of speed, direction, altitude etc.) improve to more complicated feats. Fledglings must learn to navigate their neighbourhood, find and safely enter a chimney, cope with wind, and learn how to forage independently. In the evening, fledglings have been seen to practice touch ‘n’ go landings = quick entries and departures from a site. Rob and I were treated to this in La Salle Church in 2018 and you couldn’t have had a better set-up. Two juveniles were in in flight training mode – each had characteristic entry styles and each left the chimney in a different direction. One flight path was directly overhead so we had repeated chances to confirm intact wing margins. The La Salle Church has 2 chimneys – the western one was the natal chimney and that is where the fledglings were busy with their comings ‘n’ goings; the breeding pair and helper that had been onsite all season long, all roosted early in the east chimney – well away from the active youngsters.
With imminent fledging, we are not far off from the end of the season for swifts in Manitoba. Enjoy the next couple of weeks as we hope to document breeding success and watch for signs of pre-migratory movements!’
–Tim Poole
