We have been trying to keep volunteers and interested folk alike abreast of Chimney Swift activity throughout the summer. One of our target activities this year has been to go out and find swifts in new places. To this end, it is high time you were given an update as to where we stand on this, and a friendly reminder that there is still time to find more swifts.
A number of you have checked out towns in Manitoba, from Gilbert Plains, Ste-Rose-du-Lac in the northwest (ok, northwest of Chimney Swift range), to Baldur, Pilot Mound and Rivers in the southwest, Eriksdale in the Interlake and Emerson in the south. In total, we must have had folk look at over 20 towns in addition to the usual spots we watch. That is some effort. Here is a summary of where we stand, including a trip report from the Emerson/Dominion City trip earlier this week.
Towns Where We Have Swifts (Hurrah)
Baldur (report by Cal Cuthbert) Also today (June 10) at 9:53 AM I spotted a lone CHSW flying among a myriad of Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows, some Cliff Swallows and Purple Martins over Baldur, specifically 2 blocks W of the Baldur United Church (over Oak Creek Road). The previous evening I had spent about 30 minutes walking slowly along Carrie Avenue in the vicinity of the Baldur United Church but didn’t see any swifts in spite of the good looking chimney there which had been earlier noted. Therefore today’s bird was a surprise. Maybe our next visit down there will come up with more than one bird and that this one wasn’t just a transient.
Pilot Mound (report by Katharine Schulz) I was not able to link the two Chimney Swifts in Pilot Mound to any specific chimney, although they appeared to spend most of their time above a two street by three street area with the majority of potential chimneys that I had noted. There was also a potential chimney on an old house east outside Pilot Mound (south side of #3 Hwy just east of the intersection of Hwy 34).
The potential chimneys in this area included:
- 128 Moffat Ave ~26 bricks high x3x3
- 138 Moffat Ave. ~42 bricks high x 3.5 x5.5 rectangle
- 125 Stanley Ave. (corner at Anderson St.) cinder blocks
- 137 Stanley Ave. ~21 bricks high x3x2 with metal around top edge
- 215 Railway St. (on section between Stanley Ave. and Victoria Ave. ~30 bricks high x3x2
Eriksdale (report by Ken De Smet) ‘It’s from 1:20 pm on June 29. After many sail overs one of the pair went down the small church chimney on Railway Avenue. No affiliation or sign on church and doors locked. It’s between Coop and New Horizons Club.’
Neepawa (report from Rick) ‘I went there today(June 22nd) and the one is flying continuously around the hospital and mainly staying mostly around the large chimney. I am not sure but it feels that the other is on the nest.’
Lockport (report by Gerald Macnee) ’This evening (July 11th) when we were returning from Winnipeg at about 8:15 PM I noticed a couple of Swifts near the bridge. So parked for a few minutes and saw several flying around. I saw up to 10 flying from 8:20 PM until 9:45 PM. Then they started going in and out of the north chimney. One came out of the south chimney.’
Birtle (report by Lynnea Parker) ‘I’ve got 4 CHSW flyover in Birtle, Main Street (June 19th)’
Morden (report by David Charriere) ‘This evening (June 23rd), I saw 2 entries, and 1 exit. Not being overly familiar with the nest duties of swifts, the timing of the second entry/exit surprised me. Is it normal for a entry/exit to be only 10-15 seconds apart? If the birds swapped places on the nest this quick change makes sense to me. And if it is a normal turnaround time, this explains why I missed a likely exit at or near 7:57 (as soon as the entry happened I took time to jot it on my worksheet).’
Dominion City (report by Tim Poole, Chris Meiklejohn and Lynnea Parker) ‘Last evening (July 18th), Lynnea Parker, Chris Meiklejohn and I took a road trip to the south on a mission to eek out some Chimney Swifts in new places. Our first stop was Dominion City. I had recently found a record from Luc Blanchette of swifts in the town in around 2014, so a follow up was very much needed.
Having managed to make the town (I very nearly took us on a detour around St Agathe), we began our search. Within about one minute a swift was spotted
over the road. We followed it around the corner and set our eyes on a very nice looking brick chimney on a private household. At this point I think we had 2 swifts in the air. One swift dropped into the house. Success! Soon after we could see 3 swifts in the air, then the second swift dropped. The other two swifts disappeared for a bit only to be seen intermittently for the next 20 minutes or so. We noted a couple of other possible chimneys and headed to Emerson.’
Emerson (report by Tim Poole, Chris Meiklejohn and Lynnea Parker) ‘Emerson was not so lucky to begin with (this is the same day as the Dominion City report). We drove around for quite a while and did not see swifts or any really good chimneys. One private house looked out best bet and Lynnea staked it out for a while. Around sunset, and with still no swifts we decided that it didn’t look promising. I decided to drive to the railway bridge over the river, call it a hunch, and immediately spotted a more promising bird in the air. Walking onto the bridge (there’s a pedestrian path), I spied at least one swift heading north over the river, possibly with 2 others (they flew away before I could get a good look). Back to town! Apart from a brief glimpse that I had of a probable swift near the post office after sunset, we did not get to see a swift enter a chimney (Barb Stewart found a picture of the masonic lodge on First Street after our trip which looks to have a very nice masonry chimney). On the way back to the 75, via a detour to nowhere, we saw at least one good looking chimney east of the Red River in an area we had not explored. This was by the border crossing (stop press, a look on Streetview suggests a number of possible chimneys in this area).
Anyway, needless to say it was ultimately a successful trip! If anyone wants to head down that way on a second swift search, let me know and I can provide details of possible locations.’
Manitou (monitoring done by Lynnea, Frank, Jacquie and David) 4 sites were watched with no success. Frank and Lynnea both though heard brief swift chattering.
Other towns watched – but with no swifts (yet)
We cannot just give credit to those who found swifts. A number of folk took the trouble to look elsewhere for swifts with less success. Below is a list of places checked this year without swifts:
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- Rivers (Margaret and Millie), no suitable chimneys found
- Gilbert Plains (Ken), some suitable chimneys but no swifts seen
- Grandview (Ken), no suitable chimneys found
- Laurier (Ken), possible chimneys, no swifts
- Ste Rose du Lac (Ken and Jan), one possible but unlikely chimney
- Ochre River (Ken and Jan), one possible but unlikely chimney
- Valley River (Ken and Jan), no suitable chimneys found
- Sifton (Ken and Jan), no suitable chimneys found
- Minnedosa (Tim and Sabina), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Erickson (Tim and Sabina), no likely chimneys
- Boissevain (Katharine), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Crystal City (Katharine), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Cartwright (Katharine), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Minto (Katharine and Frank and Jacquie), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Deloraine (Katharine) some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Virden (Katharine), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Dunrea (Katharine), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Ninette ( Katharine and Frank and Jacquie ), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Miami (Frank and Jacquie), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Mariapolis (Frank and Jacquie), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Belmont (Frank and Jacquie), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Wawanesa (Frank and Jacquie), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
- Glenboro (Frank and Jacquie), some suitable chimneys, no swifts
If I have forgotten to include anywhere else in this list, please let me know and I will update the blog to be more accurate.
It it important to note that, just because there were no swifts noted on these visits, this does not dismiss these towns as possible locations for swifts, especially in those places where searches were made during the day.
A huge thank you everyone who has gone out and checked these places. As you can tell, there are some places which need more looking to get those all important swift residences identified. Please feel free to go and find these, and if you need some pointers, we will be happy to help!— Tim Poole
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