Further to the last blog, Matt in Carman emailed us to report:
‘On Thursday, May 9th at about 1045 hrs, while I was at the Carman Post Office I heard then saw two Chimney Swifts circling about 100 feet overhead They drifted back towards the Memorial Hall site. However, I did not see them again even though I stopped at the Memorial Hall for about ten minutes to see if they were using the chimney> I suspect they were transient birds as the weather was quite cold and windy, though sunny.’
Jump forward and Barb was back in St Adolphe on Sunday the 12th. She reported with great excitement:
‘First sighting of the season ~3:11 PM = 3 swifts over the Church. A short time later, 2 swifts were seen flying close together over Main St – both with the classic “V” displays.’Back in St Adolphe on lucky Monday the 13th, Barb and Tim watched a swift drop into the chimney on the church at around 2pm, and exit a few minutes later. There were still 3 swifts in town.
All this is gearing us up for the weekends first big roost count. Saturday 18th is number 1, but if you are unable to do it, we would be very happy for any data coming two days either side of it. This will give us an early season idea of where the first swifts are coming to.
–Tim Poole
