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By Jeremy Hatt

On January 12, 2020, Kory Renaud and I led an Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO) Outing along the Detroit River and Ojibway Park. The main target of the outing is waterfowl and gulls along the upper Detroit River in the morning and passerines and other resident birds at Ojibway in the afternoon.

Many members of ECFNC were in attendance and the outing included stops at Lakeview Park Marina, Little River Corridor Park (and Little River Pollution Control Plant), the Ambassador Bridge, and Ojibway Park. 19 participants joined for the morning and 14 participants continued on into the afternoon. The day started off cold and cloudy but by late morning and into the afternoon, there were periods of sun making birding quite comfortable. Temperatures ranged from -4C in the morning to -1C in the afternoon with winds out of the northwest. In total, we saw 43 species of birds during the outing.

Mild temperatures leading up to January 12^th meant that the waters of Lake St. Clair remained open, so birds were not as concentrated at the Detroit River mouth as they usually are in winter months when the lake is frozen (the Detroit River mouth stays open year-round and is one of the best places for observing waterfowl during the coldest periods of the winter). We still managed to scrounge up some highlights, however, including a male Wood Duck at Lakeview Park Marina, large rafts of Common Mergansers and Canvasbacks, an adult “Kumlien’s” Iceland Gull, and a handful of Bald Eagles on Peche Island.

Our next stop was Little River Corridor Park south of Lakeview Park Marina. We walked along the Little River Pollution Control Plant as well as the trail system within the park. During colder temperatures when Lake St. Clair freezes up, Little River stays open year-round due to the pollution control plant’s warm water effluent. This makes it a great place to find overwintering waterfowl and herons but because of the mild temperatures prior to the outing, Little River had very view birds except for a few Mallards and Hooded Mergansers. We did get to see a Belted Kingfisher flying along the river, however, and an American Robin hanging out with a group of European Starlings was another highlight.

After lunch, we stopped at the Ambassador Bridge to look for the resident Peregrine Falcons that frequent this area year-round. We were not disappointed. Shortly after arriving, we spotted a falcon perched atop the “R” of the Ambassador Bridge sign on the American side of the bridge followed by another flying to a nearby perch on the bridge with a Rock Pigeon in its talons. This ended up being one of the highlights of the outing since we were able to watch the falcon eating its prey in plain sight. Special thanks to Jeremy Bensette for getting it in his scope so everyone could really enjoy the view including a few curious members of the public who happened to be walking by. 

We then took a quick stop at Sprucewood Avenue west of Ojibway Parkway. This industrial area along the Detroit River can be quite birdy and highlights included a flock of 8 White-crowned Sparrows, a group of Wild Turkeys, and another Peregrine Falcon hunting for pigeons. 

Our last stop was Ojibway Park, a favourite winter location for many local birders. Here we enjoyed plenty of White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Black-capped Chickadees, and Dark-eyed Juncos at the park’s feeders. 

By Gina Pannunzio

Tim Shortridge is an avid volunteer involved in community restoration initiatives across Windsor-Essex. He joined ERCA’s How-To Crew to help support much needed restoration work in our region in an elevated way.  In addition to planting trees, in his role as a How-To Crew member, Tim provides planning support, and advances long-term growth and survival through quality control measures at planting events. He has planted many trees at various restoration sites across the region. He also participates in the citizen science tree surveys to collect tree health and growth data at community restoration sites to assist with future restoration decisions. Tim is a member of the Essex County Field Naturalists’ Club, participates in bird counts, attends meetings and many field trips. He also has adopted an amphibian route within the Marsh Monitoring Program. Tim is described by his nominator as “a great community member who loves to discuss trees, restoration and ways to protect the environment”.  

Congratulations to you Tim!

Ten organizations and individuals were honoured with Essex Region Conservation Awards for their efforts in making the Windsor/Essex/Pelee Island region the Place for Life. A full copy of ERCA’s Conservation Award Winners, as well as their Annual Report and corresponding video, can be found at  www.essexregionconservation.ca

By: Jeremy Hatt

2019 was another productive and exciting year for our Club with regard to our continued involvement with Ontario SwiftWatch, a project of Birds Canada. Not only did we have another successful year contributing data to the spring roost monitoring project from May to June, we also confirmed new roosting and nesting sites in Essex County and held two very successful Swift Night Outs in Kingsville and Windsor.

A bit of background: Since 2016, ECFNC has become more actively involved with Ontario SwiftWatch and monitoring Chimney Swifts in Essex County. The Chimney Swift is currently listed as a Threatened species in Ontario, which means the species is not endangered, but is likely to become endangered if steps are not taken to address factors threatening it. Since conservation is one of our Club’s focuses, it is in our interest to continue to monitor and protect swift habitat in the county.

The spring roost monitoring project sees volunteers across Canada counting swifts annually at known spring roosting sites on 4 simultaneous nights to get a snapshot of the overall population in the country. An additional early count is done in southwestern Ontario to catch the first significant arrivals of swifts during spring migration. According to the 2018 Ontario SwiftWatch Report published by Bird Studies Canada, “Long-term monitoring at roost sites helps our understanding of local and regional population changes. Monitoring as many roosts as possible during the same time period each year will help determine whether specific events or factors might be influencing swift numbers (e.g., drought, cold spring, or conservation actions). Roost monitoring is crucial for identifying chimneys regularly used by high numbers of swifts during migration for stewardship and protection. It is also helpful for tracking the success of these stewardship and protection efforts, and for identifying new threats as they arise.”

In 2019, eight sites were surveyed in Essex County during the spring roost monitoring project. Seven members of ECFNC helped count swifts on all monitoring nights: May 16, May 22, May 26, May 30, and June 3. These sites included three chimneys in Kingsville and three chimneys in Windsor. Two additional chimney sites were monitored by an additional volunteer in Leamington.

2019 data showed that the Essex County sites that continue to have the highest number of roosting swifts include the Epworth Church in Kingsville (high count of 291 on May 22, 2019), The Chelsea Hotel in Windsor (173 counted on May 26, 2019), The old Leamington High School (high count of 114 on May 22, 2019) and the Walkerville Collegiate Institute (high count of 98 on May 22 and 30, 2019). Mid to late May continues to be the period when Essex County sees the highest number of swifts during their spring migration.  

2019 Spring Roost Monitoring Results
Number of Chimney Swifts entering chimney

Chimney site	May 16	May 22	May 26	May 30	June 3
Kingsville – Epworth Church north chimney	5	6	5	5	9
Kingsville – Epworth Church south chimney	189	282	111	151	78
Kingsville – Epworth Church southwest chimney	0	3	0	0	0
Leamington – old train station, Marlborough St W	2	–	–	–	–
Leamington – old Leamington District High School, Talbot St W	–	114	93	74	–
Windsor – Our Lady of Assumption Church, McEwan Ave	–	0	2	2	–
Windsor – The Chelsea Hotel, Pelissier St	–	–	173	–	–
Windsor – Walkerville Collegiate Institute, Richmond Street	94	98	82	98	88

My sincere thanks go out to ECFNC members Jonathan Choquette, Karen Hass, Donny Moore, Jennifer Nantais, Paula O’Rourke, and Nancy Pancheshan for their volunteer efforts with swift monitoring in Essex County in 2019.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

If you are interested in volunteering with Ontario SwiftWatch in Essex County, please contact me at or Megan Hiebert at We especially need more volunteers for spring roost monitoring and for identifying roosting and nesting sites across the county.

There are also many known spring roosting sites in the county that have not been monitored for at least two years. It would be valuable to know if these sites are still in use by Chimney Swifts. If you live near any of these sites and are interested in checking in on them between mid-May and early June to see if they are still being used as roosting sites, please let me know!

Kingsville

1 Main Street (CIBC)

11 Main Street

12 Pearl Street (May May Inn)

Leamington

107 Erie Street

12 Nelson Street

29 John Street

3 Nelson Street

51 Talbot Street Easst

6 Hazelton Street

69 Talbot Street East

7 Clarke Street

89 Talbot Street East

9 John Street

148 Erie Street South

Windsor

100 University Avenue West

10150 Riverside Drive East (Old Brewery)

1164 Ouellette Avenue

119 Chatham Street West

1385 University Avenue (Church of Ascension)

166 Tecumseh Road West (St. Peter’s Maronite Church)

176 University Avenue West

Finally, a message from Megan Hiebert, Ontario SwiftWatch Coordinator at Birds Canada leading up to the 2020 season:
“I’ve been working over the past couple months on creating three resources to help with Chimney Swift habitat preservation and creation that I thought you’d be interested in.

One of the things I’ve made up is a Swift-friendly Chimney sign that is to be installed on chimneys where there are Chimney Swifts so that anyone coming to do maintenance on the chimney is aware of the importance of the chimney as habitat. In particular my goal for this sign is to have it put up on commercial or public buildings where there’s a rapid turnover of ownership and people doing maintenance to make sure that everyone is aware of the habitat. If you know of any places that would like one of these signs let me know! I’m getting them printed on aluminum (8.5″ x 11″ made of 3mm alupanel) so they’re not too large and nice and sturdy for installing onto the side of a chimney.

Another resource I’ve been working on is creating a pamphlet to give to chimney maintenance professionals. This pamphlet outlines what a Chimney Swift is when maintenance work should be done, swift-friendly alternatives when making changes to an active chimney and the proper authorities to contact when considering altering an active chimney. The purpose of this pamphlet is to increase awareness of Chimney Swifts, the importance of their habitat and how to work around Chimney Swifts without destroying their habitat. 

I’ve also been working on a report that outlines different methods of Chimney Swift habitat preservation and creation as well as the approximate feasibility of such methods. This report is currently being reviewed by provincial biologists but I will hopefully have it available upon request within the next few months. Thank you very much to all of you who contributed to the report by providing examples of where Chimney Swift habitat was preserved or created (not just recently but at any point through SwiftWatch’s history as I went through old records as well)! This was super helpful and will get used towards helping protect and create this habitat in the future.”