Wednesday 25th July will be our latest monitoring challenge. This week, we are asking if folk can do a one and a half hour roost monitoring session at sites for which we have evidence of a breeding attempt in 2018. We have included a list of possible sites at the end of this post.So why are we doing this? For those following the St Adolphe updates, you will have noted that the feeding intervals (gaps between entries to chimneys) are much wider than we usually expect. Barb has found that helpers, mature non-breeding swifts, are assisting the parents with feeding the young in the chimney. Helpers are also suspected at Garry’s site on Watt Street and the site in St Boniface watched last week by Barbara and Phil.
Why are helpers prevalent this year? Barb put it this way in an email to Garry earlier this week:
‘logically, in times of poor feeding, it would seem that a nesting attempt where the breeding pair are tolerant of a helper would just fare better compared to non-helper nest sites.’
We suspect, at least in the east, that our swifts are finding food harder to come by. Our hypothesis is therefore that those nest sites with helpers are going to fare better than the nest sites without helpers. Indeed, the difference between nesting success and failure may even be the presence or not of helpers.
On Wednesday, we are challenging anyone who can spare the time, to check out a site you know to have an active nesting attempt in 2018, or one from the list below. Spend one hour before sunset, and the 30 minutes after sunset monitoring, and let’s see if we can find any patterns of helpers in the subsequent data!
Below is a list of possible sites to look at, some of these are being watched already, either on Wednesday, or on a different night. If you know of another active nest site which you would like to watch, please go ahead.
- Brandon – Orange Block
- Dauphin – various
- Dominion City – private address, contact us for more info
- Eriksdale – 14 Railway Ave (Old church)
- La Broquerie – church
- La Salle – church
- Lockport – building on river, contact for more information
- Lower Fort Garry – contact for more information on which chimneys to watch
- Otterburne – Providence College
- Portage la Prairie – Trinity United Church
- Souris – various, please contact
- St Adolphe – Main Street, Club Amical
- St Francois Xavier – church
- St-Jean-Baptiste – church
Winnipeg
- City Centre – 172 Edmonton
- City Centre – 303 Assiniboine
- City Centre – 222 York (behind VJ’s)
- City Centre – various others identified and watched during day. If anyone is interested, please contact for more information
- East Kildonan – Curtis Gordon Motor Hotel
- East Kildonan – 712 Watt
- Fort Rouge – 915 Corydon
- Osborne Village – 277 River
- Osborne Village – 105 Clarke St
- South Osborne – 526 Walker
- St Boniface – 690 Rue St Joseph
- St James – King’s Theatre
- St James – Silver Heights Apartments
- St James – Moorgate Apartments
Good luck swifting!
–Tim Poole
