On 5/27/2016 8:43 PM, Ken Thompson wrote: > At least 2 common nighthawks were calling & diving above the > intersection of Broad Blvd & 2nd St, Cuyahoga Falls, 25 May ~7PM. > Ken Thompson Silver Lake, OH The decline in nighthawk numbers is being noticed everywhere. The fall flocks, formerly numerous, are especially pathetic in numbers. Here are remarks for central Ohio: "Spring migrant flocks tend to number in the dozens at best, moving at higher altitudes than in fall. Usually arrives by 5-10 May. Very early local records come from 4/16/1899 (OSUM specimen #882), 4/18/2011 (fide M. Skinner) and 4/19/1985 (OC 8(1):23); Trautman (MS OSUM 5/6/1963) reported a “large flight” in Columbus 4/26/1963; judging by what he writes elsewhere (1940:281) this may have involved ~25 seen during the day. The highest twilight counts of fall movements usually come from late August-early September, and include a description of circle-soaring by “at least several thousand” over the OSU campus 9/3/1968 (Mueller 1970), 3000+ on 9/3/1976 (Thomson 1983:206), and ~2500 on 9/3/1992 (OC 16(1):21). [[what's magic about 3 Sept?]] Later in fall, 224 migrants were observed over Clintonville 10/3/2006 (OC 30(1):20). One entered the OSU campus’s main library on 10/22/1965 (WCB 11:46). Late records were two in Columbus 11/5/2015 (OC 39(1):17) and one seen and heard calling on 11/20/1975 at High St. and Morse Rd. (J. Stahl, WCB 1(20-21):42)." I recall eating a picnic lunch with my wife at a remote Ontario park one September 20 years or so ago, when the nighthawk migration was underway. Mosquitoes were thick, but so were the nighthawks, some of which swooped after bugs beneath our picnic table, even between our legs... Bill Whan ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]