Tomorrow is our big day for Chimney Swift monitoring in Manitoba! May 26th is the start night for monitoring under NRMP as well as our MCSI monitoring nights. If you have already decided on a chimney to monitor we are happy to have you on board! If you are still looking for a chimney to monitor, please send me an email at mbchimneyswift.com and we can find you one!
Reminder that specific chimneys (with four or more Swifts) will be following the NRMP monitoring dates.
- Selkirk Mental Health Centre, Selkirk
- Merchants Hotel, Selkirk
- 367 Main Street, Selkirk
- Providence College, Otterburne
- Paroisse Catholique St Jean Baptiste, St Jean Baptiste
- 213 Main St. N, Dauphin
- St Joachim Church, La Broquerie
- St Paul’s United Church, Souris
- Carmen Memorial Hall, Carmen
- 5000 Crescent Road West (Rufus Prince Building), Portage la Prairie
- Ecole Assiniboine School, Winnipeg
- 2187 Portage Ave (Moorgate Apartments), Winnipeg
For all other chimneys we are following the MCSI monitoring nights. We will watch these chimneys each Wednesday night (rain date Thursday nights) from May 26th to June 23rd.
Both the NRMP and MCSI monitoring nights follow the same monitoring protocol and use the same datasheets which can be found on the Resources and Links page on our website (https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/resources-and-links/).
For those of you wondering what Chimney Swifts have been up to in Manitoba so far this year – keep reading for our current reports!
On May 15th Ken Wainright saw the first Swift in Dauphin (the main roost site #600). Ken writes “Saw tree swallows in our back yard today which in the past has been a sign for me to check for swifts so when we found ourselves out fishing and catching nothing it was easy to convince ourselves to go and sit by a chimney. We arrived at approximately 9:10 with sunset at 9:25 knowing that traditionally our swifts push the darkness by coming in later. Well, less than 2 minutes later we saw the first swift of the season for the Dauphin roost #600 and it circled twice and went down. We waited another 20 minutes and saw nothing further but there here!!”
Nearby to Dauphin in Riding Mountain National Park Staff Colleen and Hannah were watching the visitor centre chimney on May 6, May 11 and May 16 with no sightings yet. We will keep our fingers crossed that they get some avian visitors to their visitor centre!
We have had Tim, Gerald, Nia, Ray and Sybil watching for Swifts in the Selkirk area. Several of the chimneys at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre have had to come down and have been replaced by artificial towers. These artificial towers are the same plan as our successful Chimney Swift tower at Assiniboine Park Zoo. We will have more information on this change in an upcoming blog post by Tim Poole.
Tim and our Selkirk volunteers have been working hard monitoring these towers to see if they are in use by the Swifts, as well as playing Swift calls (over a speaker) following a strict protocol to try and show the Chimney Swifts that these new structures are useable roosting and nesting chimneys.
On May 13th Gerald and Winona were out at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre watching the two new towers, as well as the yellow brick chimney. Gerald had this to say “At 8:30 3 Swifts appeared, then left for a bit. At about 8:40 they flew near the west chimney then went east close to the other one. They flew around it for a while as well as the yellow brick. By 9:05 there were 4 Swifts. As it got darker it was more difficult to see them. Three disappeared, then out of the corner of my eye I saw one go into the Yellow Brick.” So no success on the first monitoring night at the new towers… Gerald was back on May 16 and saw a maximum of five Swifts in the air and had three enter the yellow brick chimney at 9:25 with one exiting at 9:27 before the monitoring period ended.
On May 18th Gerald, Winona, Ray and Sibil were out in Selkirk watching for the birds again. Ray and Sibil was watching the Apartment on Main St and had three Chimney Swifts enter at 9:25. Gerald had one enter the chimney he was watching at 9:32 (our first for the new artificial chimney towers!) and four others flyby at 9:34. Winona had three enter her chimney at 9:34 (likely some of the four that Gerald saw in flyby). This meant a total of 10 Swifts in Selkirk that night. Very exciting that we had our first tower entry.
We also heard from some homeowners who host Chimney Swifts that their Swifts are back as well. Dave in Dominion City had Chimney Swifts back in his chimney by May 17th and thinks that some are likely using his neighbour’s chimney as well, as he saw between 6-8 Swifts in the air at one time.
This year the Assiniboine Park Zoo was able to put trail cameras in their artificial chimney again and saw their first Swift on May 11th!
Christie lives in the Tuxedo neighbourhood near Assiniboine park School and has had Swifts nesting in her chimney for a number of years. The week before last she emailed me with the news that they are back again this year!
A good start to the season and I hope to have many more Chimney Swift stories to relay to you all after our first monitoring night on May 26th!!
— Amanda Shave
