Like other reporters, I have only a dribble of nighthawks to report.
I can recall climbing onto the roof of my house on an early evening
in the 80s to estimate ~600 nighthawks passing maybe 20 feet overhead. A
couple of years later I was still able to find 300+ in the neighborhood,
but three-digit numbers are no more. Here in town, Lawrence Hicks
counted 1200 on 8/26/37, not an unusual number at the time. Kirk
Alexander had 800 in town on 8/27/1987, and Bruce Stehling reported 400
here on 9/20/1975 and 500 on 9/9/1980. These numbers obviously
represented just those counted in limited areas by single observers on
certain evenings.
        This species has been estimated (Cornell Lab) to have diminished by
~61% since the mid-60s, killed off by pesticides and habitat
degradation; I wonder if this is an underestimation. The Cornell site
relates that one banded in Ohio was the oldest known, at nine years of
age. Little is known about their South American wintering grounds.
        Various experts blame the loss of their numbers on human controls of
mosquitoes and other insects; this seems unlikely, given the large part
of their lengthy migration undertaken in rural areas where such controls
are less often undertaken. Others blame new roof treatments, but of
course these too seem trivial over their range. I can't explain why, but
I am looking for fewer and fewer of these birds as time passes.
Bill Whan

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