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.”