Month: June 2023

Start of Summer Monitoring Updates

Hi folks! Here’s a summary of what’s been going on in the Chimney Swift world the past few weeks, including an update on our priority sites. At the end of this blog, you will find an updated list of which priority sites still need to be monitored.

Let’s start with Winnipeg. Aynsley, our program assistant, has spent time this past week checking out different priority sites around Winnipeg to check for any use by Swifts. On June 21, she visited Valhalla Gardens in North Kildonan and while she saw 2 Swifts hanging around, she did not observe any entries or exits. On June 22, she visited 3 sites on River Ave in Osborne. While she did not observe any entries or exits at 444 River Ave and 280 River Ave, she did observe 1 entry and 1 exit at 277 River Ave which means that site is now confirmed to be used by Swifts and is crossed off our priority list to monitor.

On June 13, Gwen, Pam and Marilyn checked out the chimney at 139 Market Ave. They observed a group of up to 6 swifts flying around before sunset. At 9:06pm, 2 Swifts flew into the chimney. On June 16, Doug and Francene monitored at the Old Grace Housing Co-op but did not see any Swifts. Jon has been monitoring the chimney at 634 Broadway, and has observed a pair of Chimney Swifts regularly using this chimney. Garry has been watching the chimney at 722 Watt Street. On June 18, he observed 1 entry 54 minutes into his monitoring session. The Swift still had not exited by the time he wrapped up his monitoring session 15 minutes later. Over at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, there is a pair nesting in the artificial tower.  

We’ve had a few pairs of eyes in the sky in the St Boniface area. Blair has visited several priority sites, and while he did not see any activity at 865 Tache Ave on June 21, 531 St Mary’s Rd on June 20, and 864 Marion St on June 16, he did observe a pair using the chimney at 847 Marion on June 20! That means another priority site is crossed off our list.

Blair has also been monitoring his ‘usual’ sites in St Boniface. Between June 11-14^th, he observed a pair of Swifts using the chimney at all 3 of the following sites: Kaljieb Electrics (690 St Joseph St), Springs Christian Academy (261 Youville St), and Nelson McIntyre Collegiate (188 St Mary’s Rd).

 Also in St Boniface, Alyssa noticed 5 Swifts overhead on June 8 while walking on Provencher Blvd so decided to investigate and watch the chimney at 690 St Joseph St. On June 9, she observed 2 Swifts entering this chimney and even caught a video of the entrance, supporting Blair’s observations at this site.

On June 19, Frank also checked out 531 St Mary’s Rd (Riverside Billiards), and like Blair, did not observe any Swift activity. He did however note that the chimney at this location is a nice brick one and is located across from the Red River, seemingly a lovely place to reside! Where are ya, Swifts?! Maybe the rent is too high… Those waterfront views aren’t cheap, even in the bird world it seems!

Frank also monitored Paramedic Fire Station No. 9, another St Boniface priority site, on June 22. He observed 2 Swifts entering the chimney, thus crossing another site off our list! Thanks, Frank. 

On June 17, Tim had a day full of various Swift encounters. He observed an exit at the chimney at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate (where Blair has also observed activity), as well as an exit at the Good News Fellowship. Next was a stop at 424 River Ave – Interestingly, he observed 41 exits between 10:57 and 11:00 am. Not too far from there at the Donald and River Ave intersection, he observed a Swift making several attempts to grab twigs off a tree. The next day on June 18, he observed an exit from the old Rexall Pharmacy on Pembina.

Down in St. Adolphe, Barb and Rob report that all 5 nest sites were still active as of June 20^th. Here’s an update from Barb with the specific of what she’s been seeing, to give you an idea of what kind of information she takes note of to determine what stage of nesting the Swifts are at: ‘The Church and Main St pairs have had classic incubation exchanges = the best indication of incubation; the NE club pair generally have >50% attendance & I’ve seen one partner exchange <10 min between an in/out, so they are moving along the continuum; the SE club and Brodeur pairs are still <50% attendance, so can’t call them incubating yet.’

Ron was able to spend some time monitoring in Melita on June 20. He noticed 6 Swifts in the air over the legion, and later did see 1 Swift enter the Legion Hall chimney as well as 1 Swift entering the chimney at 80 Ash Street (which is a new site). He also spent some time monitoring at the Antler River Historical Society Museum but did not observe any entries or exits.

In Brandon, the monitoring team of Louanne, Glennis, Sandy, and Gwynn and Gillian have been keeping an eye on the Orange Block building. On May 31, they observed 3 Swifts enter the North chimney. On June 7, there were no Swifts around, but this may be due to a thunderstorm earlier that evening. On both June 14 and June 21, 2 Swifts entered the North chimney. In addition to the monitoring at the Orange Block, we’ve received a few reports of Swifts observed in the airspace above Brandon. Kurt saw 1 Swift flying near 930 Victoria Ave East on May 30. Tim was in Brandon June 13-14, and noted at least 5 Swifts near the armoury in Brandon, as well as 4 Swifts around the new era school. These sightings by Tim suggest that the Orange Block is not the only site used by Swifts in Brandon. If you’re ever in Brandon, keep an eye out for Swifts and any possible Swift chimneys!

Moving northeast from Brandon, we’ve gotten exciting reports of Swift activity in Neepawa! On June 15^th, Tim observed 2 Swifts entering the chimney at the Neepawa hospital, which is the first confirmed use of a chimney in this community. Kurt also observed 3 Swifts in the air in Neepawa on June 7 – his observation was near the Legion.

Gerald has been keeping us up to date on the many happenings over at Lower Fort Garry, Lockport and Selkirk.

Gerald was at Lower Fort Garry on June 12, and in addition to counting the chimneys (a whopping 15 chimneys were visible from his standpoint), he also remembered to count the Swifts! He noted several entries and exits by a pair of Swifts. At the Men’s House, he noted one exit at 8:15 pm, followed by an entrance at 8:34pm. Gerald returned to Lower Fort Garry on June 21. At around 8:40 pm, he saw 2 Swifts circling around the Men’s House. Gerald saw 1 Swift enter, but lost sight of the other one because of three cyclists passing by. Fortunately, Gerald’s video camera was on and upon review of the footage, Gerald was able to determine that the second Swift entered the chimney as well. At the Fur Loft, Gerald observed two exits, and ten minutes later observed an entry followed by another entry.

A man of many talents, Gerald took the opportunity to do some Chimney Swift outreach while at Lower Fort Garry. He briefed several cyclists and pedestrians on the Swifts, and even handed out some pamphlets – Thanks Gerald! If anyone else would like some factsheets/brochures to have on hand to hand out during monitoring sessions, please let me know and I will gladly get you some outreach materials!

As for Lockport, on June 15^th, the monitoring crew composed of Fred and Nettie, and Tim noted 1 entry into the South chimney, and 3 entries into the North chimney. On June 19^th, Winona and Sandi observed no entries into the South chimney, and one entry into the North chimney.

In Selkirk on June 13^th, Gerald observed 2 entries into the apartment building at 361 Main St. A few days later on June 16^th, Gerald checked 2 other sites in Selkirk, including 241 Manitoba Ave and one of our priority sites, The Lord Selkirk Hotel (420 Main St). While there was no Swift activity at 241 Manitoba Ave, Gerald did observe 1 Swift enter the Lord Selkirk Hotel chimney, crossing this site off our priority list. Woohoo! Also in Selkirk, Winona observed 1 entry into the Merchant’s Hotel on June 17^th. 

The Selkirk Mental Health Centre has been busy, as usual. On June 13^th, Winona observed 2 entries into T01, Pattie and Dennis observed 3 entries into T02, Robert observed 1 entry into the infirmary chimney and 1 entry into T03, and Nia and Linda observed 2 entries into the yellow brick chimney and 1 entry into T04. On June 19^th, Gerald noted 2 entries into T01, Pattie and Dennis reported 1 exit followed by 3 entries into T02, Robert noted 2 entries, then 1 exit, then 2 more entries into the infirmary chimney and 2 entries into T03, and Nia and Linda saw 1 entry into T04 and 3 entries into the Yellow Brick chimney.

Over in the Portage La Prairie area, Gordon watched the Rufus Prince Building on June 8 and observed 11 entries and 1 exit. Not far from Portage near Southport, Carrie reported 2 Chimney Swifts in her yard on June 16^th which is her first sighting in this area in nearly 5 years! The nearest breeding chimney is in Southport, about 3 km away.

In Steinbach, Frank spent some time watching the hospital on June 13. Here’s what he saw, in Frank’s words: “The good news is that three CHSW were visually and vocally in the area, but I did not see any entries. On three occasions, I saw CHSW so close to the chimney that I initially thought they were rapid entries or exits. At 21:31 one CHSW veered away from the left chimney vent at the last possible instant (and apparently never returned).”

Up in The Pas, Joel has reported lots of activity. On June 2^nd, he saw 4 Swifts over Bignell Ave, with 2 Swifts gathering twigs before disappearing. On June 9^th, he saw 2 Swifts over Bignell. On June 16^th, he saw 1 Swift enter the Frontier Apartments building, at the corner of 3^rd and Ross Ave. Later that day, he saw 2 Swifts fly over the Wescana, not far from Via Rail.

Alright, to sum that up… With the help of you incredible volunteers, since our last update we’ve managed to confirm use by Chimney Swifts at an additional 4 priority sites, including 420 Main Street in Selkirk (Lord Selkirk Hotel), and 3 sites in Winnipeg: 277 River Ave (Royal Oak Court Apartments), 864 Marion St (Fire Paramedic Station No. 9), 847 Marion St (formerly EuroCraft Office Furnishings). That brings us to a total of 7 confirmed priority sites this year!

If you need a refresher on our priority site monitoring plan, check out last week’s blog post. Here’s an updated list of our priority sites to monitor for the summer, with these newly confirmed sites crossed off the list:

Settlement	Neighbourhood	Location	Site	Observer
Manitou	.	338 Hamilton St	St Andrews United Church
Morden		325 Stephen St	Pembina Hills Art Centre
Selkirk	.	420 Main St	Lord Selkirk Hotel	Gerald Machnee
The Pas	.	380 Hazelwood Ave	VIA Rail Station
Wasagaming		106 Buffalo Dr
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	222 York Ave	Brink’s Canada
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	222 York Ave	Brink’s Canada
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	803 Erin St	Elan Designs and Upholstery
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	520 William Ave	Living Gospel Church
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	520 William Ave	Living Gospel Church
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	33 Kennedy St	Lincoln Towers Apartment
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	100 Adelaide St	Immigrant Centre Building
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	348 Assiniboine Ave	Redboine Apartments
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	91 Albert Str	The Old Market Autonomous Zone
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	239 Colony St	The Florida
Winnipeg	East Kildonan/Elmwood	325 Talbot Ave	Riverwood Church Community Firehall
Winnipeg	Fort Garry	1022 Pembina Hwy	Cambridge Hotel
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	411 Stradbrook Ave	Lancaster Apartment
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	277 River Ave	Royal Oak Court Apartments	Aynsley Woods
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	105 Clarke St	My Place Realty
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	272 Cockburn St	King George Court
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	118 Scott St	Apartment
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	280 River Ave	Moxam Court
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	245 Bell Ave	Children’s Education Funds Inc
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	834 Grosvenor Ave	Eugene Apartments
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	444 River Ave	Augustine United Church
Winnipeg	North End	935 Main St	Ukrainian National Federation
Winnipeg	North Kildonan	25 Valhalla Dr	Valhalla Gardens
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	465A Lanark St	Lanark Gardens
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	465D Lanark St	Lanark Gardens
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	1055 Grant Ave	Grant Wilton Apartments
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	890 McMillan Ave	Milan Apartments
Winnipeg	St Boniface	1310 Archibald St	Niakwa Park Plaza
Winnipeg	St Boniface	340 Provencher Blvd	Centre Culturel Franco Manitoba	Blair Reid
Winnipeg	St Boniface	864 Marion St	No. 9 Fire Paramedic Station, 864 Marion Street	Frank Machovec
Winnipeg	St Boniface	847 Marion St	Euro craft office furnishings	Blair Reid
Winnipeg	St Boniface	99 Birchdale Ave	Nordale School
Winnipeg	St James	2160 Portage Ave	Stanley Park Apartments
Winnipeg	St James	2150 Portage Ave	Thunderbird Apartments	Amanda Shave
Winnipeg	St James	155 Traill Avenue	Hilton House Apts	Amanda Shave
Winnipeg	St James	2415 Portage Ave	Essex House, pest cage
Winnipeg	St Vital	531 St Mary’s Rd	Riverside Billiards

As always, please let me know if you’ve got any questions or feedback! You can reach me (Marissa) at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com.

Stay cool out there, and happy swift-ing!

-Marissa

Priority Sites and Swift Parenting:

The monitoring plan for the remainder of the breeding season

While our official roost monitoring evenings are done, we do continue monitoring throughout the nesting season. You can keep monitoring your usual chimney or help us confirm use by swifts at our priority sites. Occasional observations as well as consistent monitoring are both valuable.

Barb elegantly puts in words the benefits of these different approaches in a past blog post: “Along the way your monitoring sessions will add puzzle pieces to the overall picture. Infrequent, short sessions gather puzzle pieces with snippets of information; these are very good for verification of site use. Frequent, lengthy sessions harvest more robust puzzle pieces that have more information in them; these are necessary for identifying stages of nesting.”. Basically, doing what you can, when and where you can, is all helpful and helps us bring together the countless pieces of the greater Chimney Swift puzzle.

Keep reading for a detailed breakdown of how to help us monitor priority sites, as well as how to monitor a nesting chimney during breeding season.

Priority sites

Below is a list of our priority sites to monitor in 2023. We want to know if Chimney Swifts are using these chimneys. Confirming use of these chimneys by swifts (an entry or exit) will confirm them as protected ‘residences’ under the Proposed Chimney Swift Recovery Strategy. Monitoring at these sites can be done at any time of day – the key is to see an entry or an exit by a swift.

Here’s how you can help: Take a look the list, pick a site or two that you would like to check out, go take a look to see if there any swifts using this chimney and let us know what you see! Once we get a report from someone saying they’ve observed an entry/exit at a site, we will cross that site off our list and let everyone else know that this site no longer needs to be monitored. We will be posting an updated list on the blog weekly, so that volunteers can see what sites still need to be monitored and which sites have been ‘checked off’. A collaborative scavenger hunt of sorts, with important implications for Chimney Swift conservation!

Three of these sites have already been crossed off our list, which is exciting! Amanda observed a swift entering the chimney at 2150 Portage Avenue on May 24^th, as well as three swifts entering the chimney at 155 Traill Avenue on June 3^rd. Blair observed two swifts entering the chimney at 340 Provencher Boulevard on June 7^th. These three sites have a line across them in the list below, to represent that they have been ‘crossed off’ our list.  

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Settlement	Neighbourhood	Location	Site	Observer
Manitou	.	338 Hamilton St	St Andrews United Church
Morden		325 Stephen St	Pembina Hills Art Centre
Selkirk	.	420 Main St	Lord Selkirk Hotel
The Pas	.	380 Hazelwood Ave	VIA Rail Station
Wasagaming		106 Buffalo Dr
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	222 York Ave	Brink’s Canada
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	222 York Ave	Brink’s Canada
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	803 Erin St	Elan Designs and Upholstery
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	520 William Ave	Living Gospel Church
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	520 William Ave	Living Gospel Church
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	33 Kennedy St	Lincoln Towers Apartment
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	100 Adelaide St	Immigrant Centre Building
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	348 Assiniboine Ave	Redboine Apartments
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	91 Albert Str	The Old Market Autonomous Zone
Winnipeg	Daniel McIntyre	239 Colony St	The Florida
Winnipeg	East Kildonan/Elmwood	325 Talbot Ave	Riverwood Church Community Firehall
Winnipeg	Fort Garry	1022 Pembina Hwy	Cambridge Hotel
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	411 Stradbrook Ave	Lancaster Apartment
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	277 River Ave	Royal Oak Court Apartments
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	105 Clarke St	My Place Realty
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	272 Cockburn St	King George Court
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	118 Scott St	Apartment
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	280 River Ave	Moxam Court
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	245 Bell Ave	Children’s Education Funds Inc
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	834 Grosvenor Ave	Eugene Apartments
Winnipeg	Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry	444 River Ave	Augustine United Church
Winnipeg	North End	935 Main St	Ukrainian National Federation
Winnipeg	North Kildonan	25 Valhalla Dr	Valhalla Gardens
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	465A Lanark St	Lanark Gardens
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	465D Lanark St	Lanark Gardens
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	1055 Grant Ave	Grant Wilton Apartments
Winnipeg	River Heights/Fort Garry	890 McMillan Ave	Milan Apartments
Winnipeg	St Boniface	1310 Archibald St	Niakwa Park Plaza
Winnipeg	St Boniface	340 Provencher Blvd	Centre Culturel Franco Manitoba	Blair Reid
Winnipeg	St Boniface	864 Marion St	No. 9 Fire Paramedic Station, 864 Marion Street
Winnipeg	St Boniface	847 Marion St	Euro craft office furnishings
Winnipeg	St Boniface	99 Birchdale Ave	Nordale School
Winnipeg	St James	2160 Portage Ave	Stanley Park Apartments
Winnipeg	St James	2150 Portage Ave	Thunderbird Apartments	Amanda Shave
Winnipeg	St James	155 Traill Avenue	Hilton House Apts	Amanda Shave
Winnipeg	St James	2415 Portage Ave	Essex House, pest cage
Winnipeg	St Vital	531 St Mary’s Rd	Riverside Billiards

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Nest site monitoring

Many of you have been regularly monitoring chimneys used by Swifts to nest. If you are interested, we encourage you to keep monitoring these chimneys at the frequencies and durations that work for you. Monitoring during the nesting season can be done during the daytime. Data such as the number of entries and exits per hour, as well as the amount of time spent inside the chimney between entries/exits are useful in determining which phase of nesting the Swifts are currently in.

We are now into the ‘nest building’ phase of the breeding season, during which a breeding pair of Chimney Swifts will build a small cup-shaped nest by bringing small diameter twigs into the chimney, using their sticky saliva to glue these twigs together to form a nest. The Swifts will continue to build the nest throughout the egg laying and incubation phases. There is a lot of variability in the activity across nest sites but in general, if there is nest building at a site, you will see daytime entries by a single Chimney Swift or a pair flying together at a frequency of around 1-2 entries and exits per hour. The duration-in/between-visit time intervals are variable.

Once the eggs are laid, incubation begins. Here is Barb’s great explanation from a past blog on what incubation can look like in terms of activity:

“Incubation is the toughest nesting stage to pin down with respect to the date of onset. Start dates are nearly impossible to establish unless you have a nest cam or viewing port inside a tower etc. But it is possible to identify if the Chimney Swifts are incubating by using monitoring data. In ascending order of good, better, and best, I use 3 criteria which usually indicate that Chimney Swifts are on eggs. For monitoring sessions of at least 60 minutes, signs of incubation are: 1. % attendance, or time spent in the chimney, is > 50%; 2. A duration-in interval <10 min. (for an entry where a partner is not obviously flying nearby and doesn’t enter); and/or 3. A classic incubation exchange i.e., an entry followed by an exit 30-120 sec. later. Classic incubation exchanges take place 1 X hour (give or take a few minutes) at a site with 2 breeding adults.”

Once the eggs hatch, the Swifts move from the incubation phase (general range of 18-21 days) to feeding their young before fledging (general range of 28-30 days).

It is important to keep in mind that many other factors can influence Swift behaviour. Bad weather or other disturbances may cause Swifts to enter a chimney during the daytime, even though they are not nesting. Also, there are always exceptions to the general ‘rules’ for timing and duration of the different nesting phases and their associated activities.

The same can be said for trying to interpret the movement and behaviour of Swifts during migration, as they arrive and disperse throughout the breeding grounds… As many of you who watched the same site across several different nights know, the number of Swifts entering a chimney during the roosting hour can be extremely variable from session to session. I will finish this week’s blog post by sharing some words from Winnie Wake (from London, ON) about interpreting the results of our swift counts during this period, with). Winnie shared these thoughts (along with the beginning caveats) with Barb and has given us permission to share them with you:

“I would caution that my proposed interpretations for our region might not necessarily be fully applicable to yours.  We also notice that numbers can vary at the small sites that we refer to as nest-only chimneys.  When half a dozen swifts show up at some of these, we do not know who the extras are – extra migrants or surplus of wanna-be helpers or some other category.  With swifts, I have learned there are always exceptions to defy any generalization I may try to invent to explain their behaviour.

During spring migration, the big unknown in interpreting swift counts at various chimneys is the turnover rate.  How many days do migrating swifts stay in London before resuming their journey north (or dispersing to local nest chimneys) and, while here, to what extent do they move around among London chimneys?  Personally, I do not think a significant number of migrating swifts move around to the extent that total numbers stay relatively the same for a number of days, though I think that some swifts likely do move around among chimneys. 

I think a lot of our swifts pass through in waves.  This could be waves of different sizes that arrive and move on after spending varying numbers of days in town.  The wave theory is also visible at a finer level.  During a roost watch, we often notice a group of swifts arrive, circle and enter.  Then the sky will be empty for a while until the next group arrives, often from a different direction. We will also sometimes notice swifts passing over a roost chimney in numbers that are larger than the number that finally enters.  Presumably these birds are checking out the possibilities before making a decision on where to spend the night. I have a hunch a number of our birds go directly to nest chimneys without first spending time in local roosts.  We also do not know how many other London chimneys that we are not regularly monitoring might be occupied by roosts in a particular season.  Most of the roost chimneys we monitor are within a km or so of other monitored chimneys.  Almost all of the 18 chimneys have hosted roosts at some season or time in the past (only 3 FSA chimneys have not), but, in a given spring, summer or fall season, it is unusual for there to be more than four to six active roosts.”

We’d love to keep receiving reports of what you’re seeing, or not seeing! Even if you are not following the official roost monitoring protocol, you can enter your reports on our datasheet (available here on our website). As always, send us an email at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com if you’ve got any questions. Stay tuned for next week’s blog for more monitoring updates!

-Marissa

June has arrived, and the swift reports keep coming in! Thank you to all of those that have been monitoring and submitting reports. While our four official MCSI/NRMP nights for the season are now done, we encourage you to keep conducting roost monitoring sessions whether at the same site you have been monitoring this year or in past years, or at sites that we have on our list as priority chimneys to monitor for use by swifts (to confirm ‘residence’ status). Click here to read our start of year blog which goes into more detail about what we mean when we refer to ‘residence’ status, and the different types of sites we want to monitor.

Here are some new updates since our last blog, starting with our Winnipeg sites:

On June 1st, Barbara Barnett observed 210 entries into the River Manor Apartments. A few days later on June 5^th, Barbara and Phil observed 175 swifts enter the chimney. At the Moorgate Apartments, Linda Curtis observed three entries and one exit on June 1^st, and two entries on June 5th. Jo Swartz and Richard Silverman watched the chimney in Assiniboine Park on May 25^th and saw seven swifts flying around, with five swifts entering the chimney for the night. On May 28^th, Jo watched the chimney again this time with Betsy Thorsteinson and saw four swifts enter the chimney. On June 5^th, Jo and Richard observed three entries into the chimney. Beth Hiltz and Wolfgang Jansen watched the Assiniboine School chimney on June 1^st and observed four swifts in the air and one entry into the chimney, while on June 5^th, Beth did not observe any swifts enter the chimney. Blaire Barta submitted more reports from the Behavioural Health Foundation in St. Norbert, noting two entries on both May 31^st and June 5^th. Amanda Shave was able to cross another priority site off our list of sites to confirm use by swifts – She observed three swifts entering the chimney at Hilton House Apartments, which means it now qualifies as a residence for Chimney Swifts. Woohoo!

Things remain very busy in Selkirk. Winona Hook has been watching the Merchant’s Hotel, reporting two entries on both June 3^rd and June 5^th. At the Selkirk Mental Health Centre (SMHC) on June 1^st, two entries were observed at T01 (tall tower), T02 (courtyard tower), T03 (infirmary-attached tower) and the infirmary chimney, while no entries were observed at the yellow brick chimney and T04 (powerhouse tower). On the morning of June 3^rd, Gerald and Carol looped through SMCH and saw two entries into the infirmary chimney, and one entry into T03. Tim Poole and his team of students watched the SMHC towers in the morning on June 5^th and reported seeing one entry into T01, no entries into T02, one entry into T03, one entry into T04, one entry into the infirmary chimney, and no entries in the yellow-brick chimney. Later on that day during the official roost monitoring session, volunteers observed two entries into each of T01, T02, T03, the yellow-brick chimney and the infirmary chimney, but no activity at T04. It seems that there is some nest building going on in some of these chimneys and towers, but we will need to keep monitoring to be sure of what is going on here!

As for Lower Fort Garry, Joanne Tuckwell monitored during the morning of June 5^th, and observed two swifts entering into the Fur Loft, followed by two exits. She also saw two entries into the Men’s House chimney. Later on that evening, Gerald Machnee observed one entry into the Men’s House chimney and two entries into the Fur Loft chimney.

Barb and Rob Stewart have been busy keeping an eye on the swifts in St. Adolphe. After observing many daytime entries and exits at the Club Amical from May 28^th to June 2^nd, they suspected that nest building was underway in the northeast chimney. The southeast chimney is proving to be a bit more confusing, with some monitoring sessions resulting in zero activity and other sessions resulting in the observation of entries and exits and the swifts spending a lot of time inside the chimney (which can be an indicator of nesting activity). On June 6^th, Barb and Rob noted long durations of time between entries and exits in the northeast chimney, suggesting that the swifts using this chimney have reached the incubation stage of nesting. It will be interesting to see what happens here in the next several weeks.

In La Broquerie, Frank Machovec monitored the church chimneys on June 1^st and observed three swifts enter the large chimney and two swifts enter the small chimney. On June 5^th, he saw three swifts enter the large chimney and one swift enter the small chimney.

In Dauphin, Ken Wainwright and crew observed two swifts enter the Malcom Block chimney, and four swifts occupying the chimney at once at Old Scott’s Hardware on June 1^st.

In St. Francois Xavier, Mike and Michele Tumber watched the church chimney on June 5^th and observed three entries into the chimney.

In St. Jean Baptiste, Luc Blanchette has been watching the church chimney. On May 31^st, he observed 16 entries and three exits, with a maximum of 13 swifts in the chimney at one time. On June 5^th, Luc observed 10 entries and three exits, with a maximum of eight swifts in the chimney at one time.

Our program assistant Aynsley has been monitoring the chimneys in Otterburne. On June 1^st, she observed one exit from the chimney near the bell tower, two entries into the large chimney, and one entry into the skinny chimney. On June 5^th, she observed four entries and two exits at the large chimney and three entries and exits at the skinny chimney. There was no observed activity in the chimney near the bell tower.

There have also been some sightings in The Pas, by Joel Kayer. On May 30^th and 31^st, he saw swifts flying in the sky near the VIA rail station in the afternoon. He heard some more swift activity on June 1^st.

That’s it for the updates for this week! If you’re wondering about where and when you can monitor in the upcoming weeks/months, please send us an email! High on our priority list is to find volunteers to monitor sites that haven’t had confirmed use by swifts in the last three years. These sites can be monitored at any time of day for any duration of time – the important part is seeing a swift enter or exit the chimney, which will confirm its status as a ‘residence’ for Chimney Swifts. Amanda has already successfully confirmed two of these sites by observing swifts entering them which is very exciting! We will continue to tackle this scavenger hunt as a group throughout the summer. Next week’s blog will focus on this mission of ours, and will include a detailed a list of these priority sites. We also encourage volunteers to continue monitoring at your ‘usual’ site if you have one.

Whew, that was a long one. Thanks folks, we really couldn’t do it without you! Remember to send us your reports and observations at mbchimneyswift@gmail.com

— Cheers! -Marissa and Aynsley