Tonight Jenny Bowman and I made a trek to Ohio Wesleyan University.  I had
to return some borrowed study skins I used for several recent programs and I
also had some avian donations for the OWU museum. I was secretly hoping that
when I left around 7-7:15pm that just maybe there might be a few Common
Nighthawks left from the night before when Sean Williams reported over ~550
birds. Well, I did not even get backed up from the science building parking
lot then Jenny goes, there's one, there's another.  They were flying over
the stadium and the trees along 315 and the Olentangy river.  We drove out
36/37 west and we must have seen 100 to 150 birds dipping and diving,
flapping lazily then moving like a streak across the field and sky.



We turned around and headed towards Rt 23 and finally pulled over in a
Kroger shopping center lot south of Delaware within easy view of the river
corridor. The nighthawks would just come out of nowhere and disappear in
several blinks of the eye.  Watching their forceful wing beats was such a
delight.  We estimated 200 to 250 birds in about an hour.



We also watched flocks of starlings and blackbirds gathering in the river
corridor trees on 23 just north of the 315 turn off.  One tree alone had 500
to 600 birds. We must have seen an easy 1500 or more blackbirds/starlings in
about 15 to 20 minutes.



Good luck getting to see these awesome creatures migrating to South America.
It is a marvelous sight to witness whether you see a handful or a couple
hundred nighthawks!

Darlene Sillick


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