Wednesday Night is Swift Night!

A quick look over the figures indicates that so far in 2019, you have checked at least 114 chimneys for swifts, with an impressive 88 being occupied on at least one occasion. This is an incredible achievement!

MCSI is aiming to maintain momentum throughout the summer. Our target is to watch over 150 chimneys. This means that we need your help. Here are a few suggestions of the types of swift watching you can do on Wednesday evening to help us out:

1. Watch chimneys in towns which have not been watched yet. Priority places include:

• Baldur
• Manitou
• Emerson
• Dominion City
• Birtle
• Crystal City
• Clearwater
• Darlingford
• Neepawa
• Eriksdale
• Melita
• The Pas
• Stonewall

2. Look for alternative chimneys in and around your existing Chimney Swift community. For example, in 2019 we have had excess birds in the air (swifts which were not accounted for int he main chimney) in:

• St Francois Xavier
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste
• La Broquerie
• Steinbach
• Souris
• Morden
• Brandon
• Otterburne (try the church or the old convent)

3. Look at existing chimneys on the database in your area. Here are a few examples of chimneys which have not been checked in 2019:

• Selkirk (Manitoba Avenue, Lord Selkirk Hotel)
• Portage la Prairie (MTS Building)
• Southport (Mynarski Building)
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste (school)
• Winnipeg – there are lots of options, email us and we will point you towards possible chimneys which will need looking at.

4. Go and find some new sites! This is especially likely in larger communities, and especially Winnipeg. 

5. Keep an eye out for swifts and chimneys as you travel around Manitoba this summer. Last summer, Ken De Smet found swifts in Eriksdale because he happened to be in town having lunch while doing some Red-headed Woodpecker monitoring.

Please, we would love your help to build up the fullest picture of where to find swifts in 2019! If you have data and have not submitted it yet, please do so as you get a chance. Finding out where these birds are using is important for their conservation.

Quick Monitoring Update

Last Wednesday we had our annual season ending swift watch at Assiniboine School. Don, Denis, Jake, Lyle, Janice, John, Frank, Jacquie, Leah, Kelsey and Tim counted 104 swifts enter the chimney for the night. In the same area, Kelsey has confirmed a nesting attempt is underway at the Essex House Apartments, a new site for 2019.

Derek also picked up a new site, at St Paul The Apostle Church on Portage Avenue in St James. Thank you Derek!

On Friday evening, a group of Nicole, Cain, Barb, Rob, Frank, Jacquie, Serge, Christian and Tim, watched the zoo tower, counting a daytime entry and exit followed by 3 swifts entering to roost for the night. This confirms that the activity recorded the previous week was certainly no fluke!

Blair  continues to check his sites, watching some good daytime activity at the St Joseph Street site. Here is his report:

‘Below are the details of the sightings at St. Joseph Street, which was quite active.  There were entries into the chimney.  But the two swifts that  entered the chimney, remained for 30 minutes.  There were 3 swifts flying together and were sited 7 times before the entries and again once after.  I think these three are a group in the chimney and the other 4 in the air were a separate group. 

Do you know what the pair would be doing in the chimney for 30 minutes at this time?  It doesn’t seem to be the same as the nest building scenario, that was explained in a recent new report.  

Arrived at 10:10 at 690 St. Joseph

10:13 – 3 CHSW around building
10:20 – 3 CHSW to the east of chimney
10:24 – 2 CHSW around building
10:25-10:27 – 3 CHSW close to the chimney
10:30 – 3 CHSW back again to east, flying together
Merlin flying overhead but moved off to the west
10:37 – 2 CHSW came back
10:38 – all three back circling the chimney, saw a forth in the distance to the SE
10:40 – 2 CHSW enter the chimney
10:48 – 1 CHSW flying over the chimney
10:49 – 1 CHSW flying over the chimney
10:51 – 1 CHSW flying over the chimney, then four swifts flying over the building
10:53 – 2 flying close to building to the N
10:55 – 1 CHSW flying over the building
10:58 – 1 CHSW flying over the building to the SE
11:08 – 5 CHSW in the distance to the SE
11:10 – 2 CHSW exit the chimney, then three flying together
11:13 – 4 CHSW flying together to the N, turned and flew further North
11:15 – Left to check chimney at the Franco-Manitoba Cultural Center.

The Cultural Centre was empty. Blair’s question about activity was answered as if by magic by the ever helpful Barb in her St Adolphe report:

‘Conditions continue to be optimum for Chimney Swifts in St Adolphe. Each of the 5 nest sites in town is occupied by a breeding pair of swifts. They are still busy twig collecting, but they are telegraphing egg laying is also taking place. Very long “duration in” intervals (= the time between an entry and an exit) are being seen – whether a single bird or a pair enters, it is often 30  to 40 minutes before an exit from the chimney is made. Eggs are often laid every other day and incubation begins with the second to last egg. This is a very tough transition for monitors to pick up on! 

When the swifts are tight on their eggs, classic incubation exchanges will take place. The “between visit” interval (= the time between an exit and the next entry) is roughly 1 hour. You will see a swift enter the chimney ~silently and fast usually~ then within 30 seconds to 2 minutes, a swift will exit (= a much shorter duration in interval compared to the egg laying stage). The adult birds have exchanged the job of covering the eggs and the off-duty parent heads out to feed. Incubation lasts between 18-21 days, although shorter incubation periods of ~16 days have been noted previously in St Adolphe.

Borrowing from the Big Bang Theory finale, who borrowed from Heraclitus, a Greek Philosopher: CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT IN LIFE. Watch for the signs of change as nesting Chimney Swifts shift gears as their breeding activity continues!‘

Tim continues his mission to find every chimney between home and the Nature Manitoba office. On Thursday of last week he clocked a swift flying into a new chimney at 272 Cockburn Street in the Earl Grey neighbourhood. On Friday it was a swift dropping into a new chimney in Osborne Village, this time on top of 118 Scott Street.

In Portage la Prairie, Gord, watched the small chimney on the Correctional Facility. There was a swift using it, but it left, not returning to roost.

Thank you for keeping those reports coming, we thrive on reports! And thank you everyone for your help so far. We want to confirm as many swift sites as possible, so we look forward to hearing from you!

— Tim Poole, Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative Coordinator