Another week of excellent monitoring has come to a close, and we have some really fascinating reports from Dauphin to Brandon, from La Broquerie to St Francois Xavier.
Where to start ?
On July 23rd, Robert and Donna attempted the Selkirk 3 chimney watch at Selkirk Mental Health Centre. They reported 12 swifts entering the large stack, and multiple entry and exits at the infirmary and yellow brick chimneys.
Moving to Ken, Jan and the fast growing Dauphin crew. Here is July 25th’s swift news:
‘Well, we got ourselves organized to watch all 3 Dauphin chimneys with walkie-talkies to share our instantaneous observations. As I (Ken) was filling in my data sheet at the roost there was a sudden swift showing up and straight down the chimney (8:27) and shortly there after another went down (8:50) followed by an exit (8:51) and another exit (9:05), this type of turn around is not what we are used to in Dauphin.
Meanwhile at chimney #3 there was an in & out within a minute (9:10) and at chimney #2 there was also an in & out (9:13/9:14). Is it possible that all 3 chimneys have nests? Later chimney #3 had another in & out (9:30) while #2 had “veer and peers” about every 5 minutes.
Right on sunset, the roost chimney airspace was suddenly alive with swifts and within a few minutes 29 flew down the chimney followed by 4 more over the next few minutes.
In summary there were 34 in roost chimney (#1); only 1 spotted(?) going down #2; and finally 3 in chimney #3.’
Ken also sent an update from July 29th:
‘Chimney #2 had 3 swifts go down but the chimney is nestled between the building and several large spruce which makes it almost impossible to see an exit. The entries were 8:03, 8:35 & 8:38 so there could have been an exit between, the main thing is however that the this was not the roosting hour and, there were lots of “veer and peer” flights overhead so I would say YES to a nest.
The roost chimney #1 was during roosting hour but had an exit just as we got there and a ½ hour later there was an in & out 3 minutes apart which would indicate YES another nest even thought a ½ hour later there were another 26 swifts go down for the night!!
The #3 chimney Jan got to watch also had 2 in& outs with less than a minute between and only 4 minutes between the two cycles so 2 birds at least feeding here also, YES another nest.’
Great news from Dauphin, and congratulations to everyone involved in the effort to confirm these sites.
Veering south and east, David, was back in situ at the church in La Broquerie, one of Manitoba’s most intriguing stories for 2018. Here is his report from July 25th:
‘After subtracting the exits (4) from the entries (23) I made it 15 birds in the large chimney for the night and 4 in the small chimney, making a grand total of 19 compared with 9 seen on earlier counts.
It is very hard to watch both chimneys simultaneously so I concentrated on the large chimney and may have missed some activity at the small chimney.
I arrived at 8.30 and there was an exit almost immediately afterwards, so there may have been entries before that time too. AS you know it was cold, windy and heavily overcast with rain spots occasionally so early to bed was the order of the day.
There were a lot of Purple Martins sharing the same airspace so it was impossible to count swifts in the air. Strangely the Martins disappeared at 9pm almost exactly.’
Gord in Portage reported form the same evening that:
‘I had a total of 4 entries at Trinity United Church with 15-30 minute intervals between entries. It was a very poor evening, as there was an overcast and it was cold and windy. The birds were having difficulty finding insects to feed their young, but the upside is that they haven’t abandoned their nest.’
In Brandon, Margaret and Millie still have a very active pair (or is there a helper?), 8 entries and 6 exits was a very good evenings work on the 25th.
Michele and Mike in Saint François Xavier reported on the 25th that:
‘We were really expecting to see more than 2 individual chimney swifts at our site in SFX last night but on the bright side, they were very busy with multiple entries and exits at regular intervals….first time I’ve had a 2 page night! ‘
Another pair feeding – excellent!
Barbara and Phil in St Boniface managed a magnificent 10 entries, and 7 exits on their watch. This controversial watch has given rise to estimates in the chimney from 3 to 4 to 6! Yes, swift experts cannot agree how to count. We will be sending the data to an arbitrator to decipher the actual results soon! The important thing though is there is an active nesting attempt still going, and there are helpers on site.
Back down in Morden, and David has a nice update:
‘ Consistent entries and exits by 2 different birds. 8 entries and 6 exits over the course of the hour and a half Paul and I observed the Lucky’s chimney. Except for the final entries of the night right at sunset, every entry was followed by an exit within a minute. Final entries were right at sunset.’
A new site doing well then!
Talking of new sites, Tim, was back on his bike this week having to check on a brood of swifts found in North Kildonan on Valhalla Drive. As ever, there is more to the story than we can fit here, but needless to say, we were delighted to discover our first active site north of Chief Peguis. On the same day (the 24th), he also picked up a new site in West Kildonan at the Kildonan United Church. The 26th, a wedding anniversary, some ice cream, and a coffee at Starbucks on Pembina resulting in a brief watch of the Flag Shop where 3 swifts were hanging out. Nothing happened for a while, they left for home and Tim picked out a new site while driving (honest officer, my eyes were facing forwards at all times), as a swift tumbled out of the Pembina Hotel on the corner of Pembina and Jubilee. A fourth new site was found on Friday on Broadway, at number 634 on the way home from a presentation in Wolseley (subsequently confirmed later in the evening as a breeding site). In other news, he also confirmed the breeding attempt on Kennedy as ongoing. Phew!
Again on the 26th, Meredith completed her first ever swift monitoring session. She reported from East Kildonan:
‘I checked out Roxy Lanes last night and there is a pair of Chimney Swifts using the chimney!! They were entering and exiting every few minutes so they must be feeding young.’
More happy families!
Lynnea checked a few sites out, confirming the Valhalla site on the 26th, but still finding a chimney (seriously weird this site). She did also on Fridayhave a successful evening at the 105 Clark property, recording multiple entries and exits.
Frank and Jacquie begin their update with the important matters before moving onto a swift update at Otterburne on the 26th (an attempt on the 25th ended a bit mistily):
‘We did not stop for Timmies…
All entries and exits were to the south side “skinny” chimney. There was no soaring above the campus– just direct arrivals and departures from/to the forested river side.
It appears that some birds returned late (I don’t think we missed their return) with three CHSW confirmed in the chimney. At one point where we confirmed three in the chimney, a fourth CHSW was seen near the middle chimney.
So, at least three in the skinny chimney with a likely fourth CHSW in the vicinity.’
Exhausted, we come to La Salle. Barb and Rob have their usual tales of stroppy swifts:
‘Just a quick update to say that the La Salle swifts were a bit weird last night. Should have gone out on watery Wed. when it could all be blamed on the weather…By the end of the evening, we had an exit, entry – long duration in, exit, and final roosting entry at the EAST chimney. While the alleged helper was in the chimney, all sorts of entry/exit events were going on at the WEST chimney. The final count in the WEST was 1 swift and that was shortly before curfew. It was strange though as there were two exit styles from the WEST chimney – one to the southwest and one to the north. But, you have to go with the numbers and keep the hunch by your side…so no helping helper, and no absolute indication of the pair. Insert a frustrated bad word. The nest site in the WEST chimney is active though.’
We have a longer St Adolphe update from Barb to come – the week was very exciting and we need a full blog to report on all the weird and wacky swift activities.
It’s August tomorrow and there are fledglings in the air. For many of you, this might be the last opportunity to watch ‘your swifts’ before they move on, so lets get out and enjoy them while we can!
— Tim Poole
