The swifts are well and truly back. Gord has seen two in Portage la Prairie, and Blaire two in St Norbert. There have also been swifts in St-Jean-Baptiste reported by Luc on eBird.
This segues nicely to the first monitoring night of 2019. This is our MCSI early season roost count. It is officially happening on Saturday May 18th, although due to the long weekend, we have suggested a bit of flexibility, and you can also go out on the 16th or 17th to get that first monitoring point. As ever, try to begin one hour before sunset, and end thirty minutes after sunset. For example, Winnipeg sunset is 9:12 on the 18th. So start time will be 8:12pm, and end time at 9:42. This first watch can be hit and miss, but by the time we get to nights 2 and 3 of the National Roost Monitoring Program (NRMP), you should be hoping to see swifts enter the chimney.
Once you have your datasheets completed, send them to mbchimneyswift@gmail.com. We also love to hear of any anecdotes you have as we try to get a report out on this website before the first NRMP night on May 22nd.
For those who have not seen them yet, here are the protocols for 2019, and here is the Word version of the datasheet.
Good luck swifting!.
— Tim Poole
