After reading about nighthawk migration, we went to our back deck tonight to see if they were in our northeast Ohio suburban location. Results in 30 minutes: 2 common nighthawks 2 northern cardinals 3 American goldfinches 4 chimney swifts 740 American robins!! All birds were flying northeast over my house and neighbors' yards Thanks for the tip on the nighthawks! Betsy Mac Sent from my iPhone > On Aug 26, 2016, at 1:22 PM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > 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 > > ______________________________________________________________________ > > 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] ______________________________________________________________________ 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]