This is prime time to admire the flight of nighthawks, when flocks can
be seen overhead at dusk, often along or near river corridors, over the
next few weeks. Wheaton, writing about Columbus in 1882, asserted that
"flocks of thousands are sometimes seen." Since that time, their numbers
are way down overall, though ~3000 were reported on 9/3/1976 and ~2500
on the same date in 1992 in this county. These days an Ohio count in the
hundreds is worthy of note.
        In spring, these birds arrive as early as April, with sightings here on
4/18, 4/19, and "a large flight" reported by Trautman in 1963 on 26
April. Spring migration seems to take place by day in small flocks,
usually numbering in single digits, and at a much higher altitude, where
they often go unnoticed; the largest I've ever seen numbered five, and
Trautman justly regarded ~25 seen during a spring day a large number.
Females arrive first in spring, and they do not delay in their passage.
        In natural settings, they nest on the ground in a variety of open
barren settings--gravel bars, grasslands, forest clearings, beaches,
etc. A hundred years ago they had adapted to graveled roofs in urban
settings, and in 1935 Hicks was to estimate that as a result nearly
every town in Ohio with 5,000 or more human inhabitants probably hosted
nesting nighthawks. But fewer do so today, presumably because pesticides
have reduced insect prey in cities, gravel roofs are going out of
fashion, and urbanized raccoons and crows eat their eggs. Numbers of
nighthawks nesting in wild settings are diminishing, too.
        Southbound nighthawks (and they undertake long migrations of thousands
of miles, that may extend from the Yukon to Argentina and back) move in
flocks around the time the streetlights come on, then roost less
communally at night, and sometimes during the day; they seem to take
their time, as long as flying insects are around. Some wandering
evidently goes on in fall, as the OSU Museum has local fall specimens of
five different subspecies, the local C. m. minor and four from well west
of here.
        Migrants are hard to find at roosts, as they usually crouch lengthwise
on branches and are hard to pick out. Trautman believed they preferred
black walnut and honey locust tree roosts here because their bark most
resembled the birds' plumage. Wheaton quipped: "Some writers have
asserted that the birds of this family are unable by reason of the
smallness of their feet to sit upon a limb in the ordinary fashion of
birds, but must place the long axis of the body parallel with the limb.
Reasonable as this may appear, some birds in this neighborhood
contemptuously disregard the teachings of wise men, and perch crossways
upon limbs without apparent inconvenience. I have shot several for so
doing...and hope to put an end to this provokingly unscientific habit."
        Spring birds arrive or pass through over a period of several weeks, but
fall migrants meander in unhurried flocks between late July and early
October, recruiting participants along the way. 224 were counted here as
late as 3 Oct 2006; really late records in this area involve single
birds, one that flew into the OSU main library on 10/22/1965, and
another lost soul over the corner of High St and Morse Rd. as late as 20
November 1975. It seems unlikely now we'll surpass any of these records
of dates and numbers. Nighthawks are in decline, and it's time to save
up some reminiscences to share with the grandchildren someday.
Bill Whan
Columbus




______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]