Mid-July Omnibus Blog
Buckle up folks, we’ve got lots of updates! It’s already mid-July – time flies! It’s not too late to check more sites off our priority list, though. Let’s keep working to protect these important swift chimneys! You can find an up-to-date list of priority sites still left to monitor at the end of this blog post.
Before jumping into our monitoring updates, we would like to start off this week’s blog by remembering Debbie Lefebre, who passed away on July 5th. Here are some words from Barb, celebrating Debbie’s incredible contributions to swift rehabilitation:
“Debbie ran Swift Care Ontario and was considered by many to be the premier Chimney Swift rehabber in Canada. After a nest dropping event in 2017, at the Lower Fort Garry Furloft nest site, arrangements were made for the juveniles to be flown to London where Debbie cared for them until their successful release. It is a testament to Debbie’s patience, dedication, and supreme capability that the swiftlets survived (they were fed hourly from 5 AM to 10 PM!), were taught how to fly, then integrated into a wild flock of London swifts.
You can refresh your memory banks by heading to these two links:
On the Red Deer Advocate website
The swifts have been busy, and so have our volunteers! Many of you have been trying to determine which nesting stage swifts are at based on behaviour observed while monitoring. Barb provided a detailed and helpful explanation of the incubation and hatching stages in last year’s blog post (https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/mcsi-canada-day-blog/): “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.
Hatching will be telegraphed by an increase of entry/exit events to a rate of ~2-3 X hour for 6-7 days as brooded young are fed. After the young can regulate their own temperatures, both adults may leave the nest site to forage. Feeding rates for non-brooded young rise to ~4 X hour but higher rates of ~6-7 X hour are seen when a big juicy patch of insects is available locally. If 1 helper is onsite, feeding rates typically are up to ~2 times higher than at a site where only the 2 breeding adults are tending their offspring.”
To read more on this topic, check out the following past blog posts:
https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/mcsi-canada-day-blog/
https://www.mbchimneyswift.com/st-adolphe-in-2021-and-more/
Let’s start our monitoring summary off in Winnipeg. We’ve got another site crossed off our priority list! Blair checked out the Riverwood Church Community Firehall (325 Talbot Ave) and observed 2 entries into the chimney. Thanks Blair!
Jennifer checked out the Nordale School at 99 Birchdale Ave (one of our priority sites) on June 24 during the daytime.While she did not see any entries or exits, she did notice four swifts fly low near the building, as well as 10-15 swifts foraging in the airspace high above where she was located. Blair also visited this site a few days later on June 26th, and also did not observe any entries/exits but also noticed up to 17 swifts flying around high up above.
Blair also observed two entries into the chimney at 690 St Joseph St on June 28, and two entries at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate (188 St Mary’s Rd) on July 6.
Jon spent some time at the Living Gospel Church, another one of our priority sites, on June 27. While he did not see any entries/exits into the chimney, he did observe three or four “dive-bys” by a pair of swifts which is interesting and warrants some further investigation.
Garry visited the Pro-Tac Roofing chimney (722 Watt St) for a morning monitoring session, and observed four feeding entries and exits within 53 minutes, with a duration-in interval of about one minute between each entry and exit. As Garry mentioned, this behaviour seems to indicate they are feeding non-brooded young! Exciting stuff.
Aynsley, our program assistant, has been visiting different priority sites around Winnipeg. On July 10, she visited 25 Valhalla Drive but did not see any swifts.
Another one of our priority sites is the Cambridge Hotel, where an artificial tower has been installed. Aynsley and Ron have both spent some time watching this site, and so far there has been no swift activity observed.
Breanne monitored the Maryland Foodfare chimney four times throughout the month of June and regularly observed two swifts entering the chimney during the roosting hour.
Aynsley took a trip down to Morden on July 1 and checked out two chimneys. At the first site, Morkler’s Photos, she saw two swifts in the sky but no entries or exits in the chimney. At the second site, Lucky’s Chinese Restaurant, and did observe one entry into the chimney.
Frank monitored the St Joachim Church in La Broquerie on July 3. At the smaller chimney (site 1000-1), Frank observed three swifts enter the chimney and no exits. At the larger chimney (site 1000), Frank observed an entry at 20:47 and an exit at 20:48, followed by another entry at 20:54 and exit at 20:57, followed by two entries at 21:22 and one exit at 22:23, and a final entry at 21:30. These entry/exits with short duration-in are in line with the behaviour of feeding of non-brooded young.
Nesting is in progress at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre (SMHC). Thanks to a combination of regular roosting hour monitoring by the Selkirk Birdwatchers Club as well as daytime monitoring by Tim and his students Veronica and Cam, we have a lot of data available to help us estimate nesting progress. There is swift activity at all four artificial towers and two chimneys at the SMHC, though they seem to be at various nesting stages. A big thank you to Gerald, Winona, Robert, Linda, Nia, Patti, Dennis, Tim, Veronica and Cam for helping with the SMHC monitoring!
T1 has proved to be confusing to figure out. On June 27, it seemed that the swifts at T1 were at an earlier nesting stage, with site attendance remaining under 50%. By June 30, T1’s previously low site attendance increased to 100% during an 80 minute monitoring session, suggesting that breeding is progressing at this site. During roosting hour monitoring, 3 swifts entered the chimney on June 26 while only 1 entry was observed on July 4.
The swifts at T2 have been less confusing. As of June 30, several classic incubation exchanges were observed, indicating that nesting is well underway. During roosting hour monitoring on both June 26 and July 4, four swifts were observed entering the tower at roosting hour, which suggests there are ‘helpers’ here.
The swifts at T3 did not yet have incubation exchanges by June 27, but they did have a site attendance of over 60% which pointed to incubation. On June 30 however, attendance at T3 decreased to under 50%. It is unclear what is going on at this site. During roosting hour monitoring, two swifts entered on June 26 and one swift entered the tower on July 4.
As for T4, attendance was over 50% during two monitoring sessions by June 27 and swifts were being observed using this tower during the daytime, both clues suggesting that nesting may be occurring. On June 30, the swifts begun what seemed to be incubation exchanges. Roosting hour monitoring on June 26 and July 4 both resulted in one swift entering the tower.
As for the yellow brick chimney, they had also begun what seemed to be incubation exchanges on June 30. On June 26, one swift entered the chimney during the roosting hour while on July 4, two swifts entered the chimney. The infirmary chimney is also being used regularly. One daytime entry was observed on June 30, and Robert observed two entries during the roosting hour on June 26 and July 4.
It will be interesting to see the next reports that come in for the SMHC sites and to see how nesting is progressing into July. Stay tuned!
As for the other sites in Selkirk, Winona was at the Merchant’s Hotel on June 17 and June 23, and observed one swift enter the chimney on each night. Gerald checked out the Lord Selkirk Hotel on June 26, and did not observe any swift activity. On July 4, Gerald monitored the apartment building at 367 Main St and observed four entries and two exits, with a total of two swifts in the chimney at once, suggesting that there is nesting occurring at 367 Main St.
In Lockport on June 28, Nettie, Fred and Tim noted one entry into the north chimney at St Andrews Lock and Dam Maintenance Compound during their roosting hour monitoring session. On July 5, Tim Verbiwski noticed that the swifts were entering the south chimney instead of the north chimney. On July 6, Tim once again observed more activity in the south chimney. On July 7, Gerald and Tim went back to observe once again. Interestingly, they observed one swift enter the north chimney, followed by another swift entering the south chimney a few minutes later. They then observed a swift exiting the north chimney and then entering the south chimney, resulting in two swifts being inside the south chimney. It’s hard to say what is going on here… We hope that with some daytime observations and more time, we have a better idea of if there is a breeding attempt happening at either of these chimneys.
At Lower Fort Garry during the roosting hour on June 29, Gerald observed three swifts enter the Fur Loft chimney, and two exits and three entries into the Men’s House Chimney for a maximum of two swifts in the chimney by the end of the monitoring session.
Similar to the SMHC swifts, the swifts at all five sites in St Adolphe are active but seem to be at various nesting stages. The following reports from Barb are a good reminder that swift behaviour can be highly variable from day to day, and that it can take patience and several monitoring sessions to understand what is going on. On July 6, the swifts at the northeast Club Amical chimney appeared to be at the hatching stage while the southeast Club Amical swifts had site attendance of below 30% and were observed arriving and leaving together (behaviour that doesn’t support incubation). Barb monitored these chimneys again the next day and observed not only a helper at the northeast chimney but also a helper at the southeast chimney, meaning a possible incubation! At the Church in St Adolphe, hatching occurred around June 30th, and Barb continues to observe feeding approximately 5 times per hour as well as the presence of a helper. The swifts on Main Street were showing classic incubation exchanges during the last week of June (at the same time as the Church swifts), so hatching may have taken place at this site as well.
Moving now to Southwest Manitoba… In Brandon, no swifts have been observed using the south chimney at the Orange Block building. As for the north chimney, two swifts entered the chimney on June 28 while on July 5, one entry at 21:08 was followed by an exit at 21:10, and then another entry 43 minutes later. Thanks to Louanne, Sandy, Gillian, Gwynn and Glennis for monitoring the Orange Block chimneys.
In Souris, Katharine managed to monitor five chimneys! She observed one entry and exit at both the Rock Shop and Murphey’s Irish Pub (formerly the Whistling Donkey). She also
monitored the Museum and two private residences but did not observe any use by swifts.
Katharine also saw two Chimney Swifts flying around in Hartney (which is about 20 minutes SW of Souris). We do not have any known swift sites in Hartney – Katharine did find a few potential chimneys, though. If anyone is in Hartney, please keep an eye on the sky.
That wraps up our monitoring summary for the week.
Here’s an updated list of our priority sites left to monitor. It may become easier to see if swifts are using a chimney as they may begin entering and exiting chimneys more frequently to feed their young. Let’s keep working on monitoring our priority sites to see if they are being used by swifts!
| Settlement | Neighbourhood | Location | Site | Observer |
| Manitou | . | 338 Hamilton St | St Andrews United Church | |
| Morden | 325 Stephen St | Pembina Hills Art Centre | ||
| 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 | |
| Blair Reid | ||||
| Winnipeg | Fort Garry | 1022 Pembina Hwy | Cambridge Hotel | |
| Winnipeg | Fort Rouge/East Fort Garry | 411 Stradbrook Ave | Lancaster Apartment | |
| 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 | |
| Blair Reid | ||||
| Frank Machovec | ||||
| Blair Reid | ||||
| Winnipeg | St Boniface | 99 Birchdale Ave | Nordale School | |
| Winnipeg | St James | 2160 Portage Ave | Stanley Park Apartments | |
| Amanda Shave | ||||
| 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.
Cheers!
-Marissa
