Re: [Maine-birds] Common Nighthawks

Brendan and others,

This may not apply directly to what you're asking, but just for context, my friends here in upstate South Carolina have been keeping up with the passage of Common Nighthawks over the past week.  The largest single flight so far was 35 swarming over a milo field for 20 minutes or more.  Most flights are directional and involve 2-10 birds.   The first ones we noticed came through on August 31.

Several of the early flights in this region move northeast, and then we eventually see groups heading south some days later.  The best time of day to detect them is between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.  They move through for such a short period of time that it's fun and fascinating to find them.  

Steve Patterson

a Maine birder at heart

who has always lived in SC

Anderson, SC

-----Original Message-----
From: Brendan McKay <thank.darwin@gmail.com>
To: Maine birds <maine-birds@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Sep 4, 2022 9:48 pm
Subject: [Maine-birds] Common Nighthawks

Hello everyone, I want to talk Common Nighthawks with those who are interested. First, I love all aspects of migration. I focus on arrival and departure dates for many local species but there are a few that get me really excited and Common Nighthawks are one of them. Every year mid to late August I anticipate seeing groups of these birds migrating over my yard in Portland on warm evenings when there are few or no clouds in the sky. Normally I have several sightings by September but this year I didn't see any in August despite my efforts to scan the skies each promising evening. Tonight I counted 44 pass over my house a little after 6:30pm. First I spotted a single bird flying low with typical buoyant flight. Normally when there is one, there are more so I started to scan the sky and quickly spotted a large group of birds flying high towards the SW. My immediate impression was not that of Common Nighthawk: this group was fairly tight in formation, was flying steadily and directly and my quick thought was that it was a group of American Robins. These however turned out to be a group of 43 Common Nighthawks. They changed direction as a group and flew over my house towards the East. I've never seen this species fly so directly and persistently, without glides or other acrobatics. Has anyone else seen this species migrate this way?

There were thunderstorms to the North, so maybe they were flying more deliberately to get out of the path of the storms? 

Additionally, has anyone else found that they missed seeing Common Nighthawks at the normal time this year?

Looking at eBird graphs, this species has moved through earlier in August the last two years with fewer sightings. The orange line bellow is 2022.

For those of you who made it to the end, thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Brendan

--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/maine-birds/fa97552d-0637-4f90-a7ee-ba4d06ee4e02n%40googlegroups.com.

--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/maine-birds/1526271977.2358836.1662380814719%40mail.yahoo.com.