Last blog post for 2018 !

Thank you on behalf of the Manitoba Chimney Swift Initiative for another amazing year in 2018. During this past year over 90 volunteers donated over 942 hours to monitoring swifts in Manitoba. A magnificent achievement – well done to everyone!

There were a number of highlights, the monitoring ones being highlighted previously. However, here are a few outreach and stewardship highlights.

St Joachim Catholic Church, La Broquerie

Following many years of monitoring and outreach from local champion David Dawson, we were delighted to repair the chimneys at St Joachim Catholic Church this spring before the swifts returned. The chimneys were becoming degraded, masonry had fallen into one of them, and they needed some work. Thanks to a grant from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP), and the Winnipeg Foundation, we were able to do this work, with master mason, Ed Loewen taking charge. Both chimneys subsequently housed multitudes of swifts this summer.

John Howard Society
The chimney that was split in half, the federal Habitat Stewardship Program (HSP) and Winnipeg Foundation funds were certainly needed to fix this site, which was first discovered by another champion volunteer, John Hays in 2017. You can read the full story, plus see some rather scary photos in the Canstar Community News at https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/Chimney-Swift-Initiative-to-the-rescue-483372341.html.

Kowalchuk Funeral Home, Souris

MCSI were able to also fund the repairs to this chimney in fall 2018, thanks to funding from HSP. The work was carried out by a local builder, and we were extremely happy to fund stewardship work in one of Manitoba’s premier spots for swifts. Thanks to Dexter and Val Kowalchuk, the owners, and also our first Swift Champions in Souris.

St Norbert Behavioural Health Foundation
This summer, Tim Poole, our coordinator made a trip to talk about the swifts in the chimney to grade 1 students in the school on site. It was a fantastic opportunity to speak with the students and the dedicated staff. We were also delighted to present the St Norbert Behavioural Health Foundation with one of our champion plaques. Jean Doucha, Executive Director is photographed below with the plaque on behalf of the Foundation. Swifts were breeding in this chimney during July 2018.

St Mary’s Road United Church

In early fall, Tim Poole was delighted to speak to two Sunday morning services at St Mary’s Road United Church, and present them with a Swift Champion plaque. Church member, and local environmental champion, Pam Lucenkiw provided an excellent link with the church, and even came to one of our swift watch evenings. Thank you to the church members for giving us such a warm welcome!

Gord Ogilvie and Victoria School

This was publicised elsewhere, but worth highlighting the wonderful efforts in Portage la Prairie by Red River College, Victoria School campus, and the excellent Gord Ogilvie. Read https://www.portageonline.com/local/red-river-college-receives-award-for-bird-friendly-chimney.

John Hays
John has been an absolutely outstanding volunteer for MCSI in the last few years, always willing to monitor at short notice in Winnipeg, finding multiple new sites, watching chimneys in downtown Winnipeg where volunteers are scarce, and all in all, being a brilliant champion for Chimney Swifts in Winnipeg. His Champions plaque was well deserved!

David Dawson

Although David was extremely humble about receiving a plaque, we wanted to highlight his role for MCSI in La Broquerie. Always willing to get his hands dirty for swifts, David is best known for building towers, one of which ended up in St Vital this summer, and for managing to get the chimneys at the church cleaned and unblocked. David monitors the church chimneys alone, and has championed the cause of swift conservation in La Broquerie for a number of years. Thank you David!

Frank Machovec and Lewis Cocks

Frank and Lewis, both long-term servants of MCSI received the Ralph Bird Award from Nature Manitoba. Read more at https://www.naturemanitoba.ca/news-articles/2018-nm-award-recipients.

This is just a snippet of the achievements for 2018. We look forward to doing even more in 2019. Thank you to everyone who has made this year such a success, we look forward to the opportunities that 2019 will bring. Maybe a first nesting attempt in an artificial chimney structure in Manitoba? Certainly some new champions, and certainly some more fantastic stories to share.

Thank you to everyone on behalf of the MCSI Steering Committee, Tim, Frank, Rob, Barb, Christian, Ken, Nicole, Lewis, Neil and Lynnea

— Tim Poole

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mbchimneyswift@gmail.com