Scott and all: Some reflections on the common nighthawk, a perpetually fascinating bird. Because of its habits, its movements are not so well known as those of other birds. There's a web site URL below for a project that collects counts of these birds, mostly as fall migrants seen at dusk. As for spring migrants, my limited experience is they pass over beginning as early as mid-April (the earliest Franklin Co record is 4/19), with most coming between early and mid-May. At this time, the few I've seen have been in small groups, up to a dozen, flying way up, easy to miss--as I'm sure I have--by day. During the nesting season, they seem to be most active crepuscularly, with birds seen in the middle of the night much less often. Nighthawks have great vision, but without full moonlight or artificial lights they are less likely to be successful catching insects by night, and some studies have shown they are far less active ~10 pm-2 am. Project Nighthawk, cited below, has numbers that show over 90% of the nighthawks counted migrated between August 17th and Sept 5th. Local records here include 3000+ on 9/3/1976 and ~2500 on the same date in 1992. I've seen 600+ here, on 9/9/1994. This is not the whole picture, however; here we have a record of 224 on 10/3/2006, a bird that flew into the OSU Main Library on 10/22/1965, and a straggler as late as 11/20/1975 (one is tempted to wonder if a *lesser nighthawk* of the west might be involved here, but who knows? Ohio has no record, but West Virginia's first record of lesser nighthawk was documented by a prisoner in the state penitentiary 4/28/2004). Good fall numbers seem to be associated with major rivercourses running north and south. In the fall, it seems they gather in flocks to migrate, moving in late afternoon through dark; this is when even the most casual observer notices them. I recall reading somewhere of a Canadian flock of ~16,000 at this time. Maybe these low-altitude swarming flocks, their timing suggested to coincide with peak presences of insects such as flying ants most often occurring along riparian corridors with wet meadows that concentrate insects at this time, roost in loose communities, which might explain why the flocks often turn around and hook back north just before dark: they do not know what lies ahead, but perhaps take note of good roosts not far behind on their route. I haven't heard any really good evidence that nighthawks *don't* migrate during the darkest hours. Maybe someone has used technology to find out? Nor do I know much about what they do in the morning as they continue migration, except that they don't gather in great numbers at low altitudes. All the dawn birds I see in fall are in very scattered small numbers; if you see a thousand birds one evening, why don't you see as many the next morning? Maybe they all quickly ascend to high altitudes to resume migration in scattered groups. Maybe, like swallows, they burrow into mud to spend the winter. It would be great to hear from anyone with information on any of these questions. Bill Whan Columbus gravel roof patches--a way to attract nesting nighthawks: http://nhbirdrecords.org/bird-conservation/library/Nighthawk-handbook.pdf project nighthawk: http://mysite.verizon.net/risinger2/index.html Scott Albaugh wrote: > I have been conducting home-made Common Nighthawk surveys in my Belmont > County yard for two consecutive years. Tonight was the best night yet with > the largest flocks that I've seen. Prior to this evening the highest number > of birds in any one flock was 26. Mostly I would see singles and doubles > flying relatively low over the ground. The birds travel in all directions > with a near majority curiously heading north. > > This evening, for the first time, I saw large swirling flocks at much higher > altitudes than birds seen previously. There were two south bound flocks; > one of 30 and the other of 40 (estimate.) I also saw two flocks that > appeared to be north bound; one of 22 and one of 61. > > This whole nighthawks flying north thing has me quite confused. When they > were singles and doubles flying low, I just thought maybe they were staging > somewhere and would fly south in a few days with a large group. But tonight > I saw two groups very high in the sky disappear to the north. Confusing... > > Counting the usual singles and doubles flying low, I ended up with 160 > birds. That is nearly 40 more than I had in the complete 12 hours of > surveying last year. > > I intend to write up the results of my home-made surveys and I will share > them with the group. Stay tuned... > > Scott Albaugh > Belmont County ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. 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