This update has a few coming and going items to start off…
Bill kindly stepped in for Ken and Jan on May 28 (NRMP-3), but saw no swifts during a miserably cold roosting hour – the temperature was 8 C and there was a brisk wind plus precipitation. Thanks Bill for toughing out some terrible monitoring conditions!
After wrestling some computer gremlins, the Lac Du Bonnet reports from Diann and Cam have landed:
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May 24 = NRMP-2: 1 entry/1 exit then 2 roosting entries at Casey’s Inn; 1 exit from Lac Du Bonnet Physiotherapy chimney took place and 1 entry was aborted. The group size seen = 7.
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May 28 = NRMP-3: 2 entries at Casey’s Inn; no activity at the physiotherapy site. Matt has also been plagued by computer issues; some of his files have been eaten so if anyone has records of his chimney swift or natural history information for Carman, 2010, please email Matt at: ignace_v@hotmail.com
Matt noted that insectivores in Carman have been challenged recently – chsw particularly; monitoring has been plagued by poor weather conditions but the less Matt sees of the swifts, the more he monitors! On May 31, Matt “was at the Memorial Hall tonight from 2045-2210 hrs. Saw skeins of snow geese heading North..but no swifts at all.” He hoped that migrating swifts would follow…
So here is how the evening of Monday, June 1 (NRMP-4) turned out for chsw monitors:
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Diann and Cam had 3 swifts in Lac Du Bonnet, all around Casey’s Inn; 2 roosted for the night. No entry/exit activity occurred at Lac Du Bonnet physiotherapy, so the dormitory for 1 swift is unknown.
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Ken, in Dauphin, reports that the head count for the evening was 30+. Good news that the swift survived the weather ordeal of the previous Thursday.
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David, in La Broquerie, had a quiet night with no aerial activity until 2 swifts quickly approached and entered the Church chimney to roost.
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In Selkirk, 4 chimneys were monitored and 3 sites were occupied. The total number of roosting swifts = 51 at the Tall Chimney; 0 at the Yellow Chimney; 1 at the Red Brick Chimney; 2 at Merchant’s Hotel.
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Gordon went to Southport and saw 5 swifts in the air at one time; 2 swifts entered the chimney.
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Matt in Carman got rained out.
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Margaret and Millie didn’t: more on their evening below.
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Ken reported daytime sightings of at least 2 swifts by the big chimney in the old school museum in Melita and several swifts in Souris; evening monitoring was not possible. If anybody can check out these locations for active sites, we would appreciate having these two communities in the database.
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In Winnipeg, PL and Rob got skunked again at Chancellor’s Hall on the U of M campus.
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Jane is also hoping for some activity in Assiniboine Park.
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In St James, Christian saw 1 entry at the Hampton St. Church.
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Also in St James, Bob and Valerie counted 3 swifts entering for the night at the New Silver Heights Apt.
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The crew of Adolf, Peter, Kathy, Jake, David had a season record high of ~122 swifts roosting at the Assiniboine School; 0 roosted at King’s; and 1 entered the Carillon chimney.
Now for some positive nest site developments – daytime activity was apparent in about 50% of the sites occupied by 2-3 swifts. Nest building is underway in many locations:
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At the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre, Tim and Pierre had 1 entry/exit in Fort Rouge Leisure Centre before 2 swifts came in together to roost.
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Similarly, Nicole, Cain, and Eli at the Lenore site in Wolseley saw 1 entry/exit prior to a pair of swifts entering for the night.
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In St. Adolphe, pairs at the NE Club Amical (Rob) and Main St. (Barb) chimneys had an entry/exit cycle before the breeding couple came in for the night. Jacquie and Roberta recorded a pair of entries at Brodeur Bros. while Frank and Lewis had 3 roosting swifts; no exits were made however, so nest building was not underway at these sites (I checked again on Thursday, June 4, over the noon hour and still no daytime activity was seen). Unfortunately, the SE Club Amical chimney was not occupied.
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The showstopper for NRMP-4 was Millie and Margaret’s Brandon site: 9 entries and 9 exits preceded the 2 roosting entries made by the resident pair of swifts.
For breeding chimney swifts, the frequency and sequence of entry/exit events characterizes each stage of nesting.
There are two important time intervals which may be calculated using “the time of an entry” and “the time of an exit”. I will explain these intervals using some of Millie and Margaret’s data:
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21:32 entry
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21:33 exit
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21:35 entry
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21:37 exit
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21:46 entry
The first interval is called the “duration in the chimney” and is the amount of time between an entry and the next exit. For example, between the entry at 21:32 and the subsequent exit at 21:33, the swift spent 1 minute in the chimney.
The second is the “between visit interval” and is the amount of time between an exit and the next entry. For example, using the exit at 21:33 and the entry at 21:35, the between visit interval was 2 minutes.
For the 21:35 entry and 21:37 exit, the duration in the chimney was 2 minutes.
For the 21:37 exit and the 21:46 entry, the between visit interval was 9 minutes.
So we see that the time spent in the chimney was equal to or shorter (1 or 2 minutes) than the time interval between visits to the chimney (2 and 9 minutes). After nest building, we will see a different set of intervals for the egg laying/incubation stage. If you want to read more about this, head to our MCSI website’s Resources section ( http://www.mbchimneyswift.ca/resources.html ) and follow the links under primary publications – start with the 2010 Blue Jay publication.
Our monitors are a dedicated bunch, and the reports kept coming in after Monday’s session:
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Rudolf saw 7 swifts over the Northdale Shopping Centre on June 2; both Brazier St. sites had roosting swifts – 1 in at 1010 Brazier; 2 roosted at 1030 Brazier.
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Ken went out again on Tues. night to his Dauphin roost and saw 32 swifts enter for the night.
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Matt was waiting patiently for chsw at the Carman Elementary School on June 3 – there were no sightings. Again.
Our LAST organized night out for 2015 is Saturday, June 6 (alternate date is Friday, June 5). Please monitor for 1 1/2 hours in total – start an hour before sunset and view your rims until 1/2 hour after sunset. For nest sites, June 6 is the last date for getting a successful breeding attempt underway – we need to see nest building activity (daytime entries/exits)! Roosting counts may still be peaking in some locations, so it is important to monitor these sites also!
All the best for your viewing pleasures, Barb.