Thursday, August 8, 2013

Common Nighthawks already!


Common Nighthawk, Belchertown, MA, Aug 8, 2013
It appears that Common Nighthawks have already started to arrive here.  As I was grilling up dinner and occasionally checking the sky I was thinking that nighthawks will be showing up soon.  I didn't expect two to show up within a couple of minutes of thinking of them!  (If only I had this power with everything!)  Two moved past fairly high heading south-southeast.  I ran inside and grabbed my camera and managed a single photo before they disappeared behind some trees.  This sighting is my earliest date ever of this species in fall.  My previous earliest sighting was August 13, 2010.  Hopefully just the start of big numbers to come.  The hummingbird show at the house is also reaching a fever pitch before they start heading south.  I have had several in view at once with lots of chattering and chasing as they attempt to fuel up at the various feeders.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on your nighthawk sighting! We just had our first one last night as well and it was really really awesome :-) It seems like they're coming up in full force because this bird was seen in a rare spot. We heard at least three of them and they weren't supposed to be there in one then flew over my head with a big whoosh! They are very different from the lesser nighthawk

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  2. Always fun to see these guys but it also means the starting of the end for summer...

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