The Stone Bridge Nighthawk Watch, run by the Four Harbors Audubon Society, came to a close tonight with 36 nighthawks, many circling overhead as they actively fed over both ponds.
The total for the season was 1,022 nighthawks which is by far the lowest total we've had in the seven years we've been conducting the count. Previous totals were: 2017 - 2,046 2018 - 2,018 2019 - 2,757 2020 - 2,245 2021 - 1,819 2022 - 1,625 2023 - 1,022 We don't have a clear reason why the numbers were down so much. We did have three days in a row where the watch was washed out, the first time this has ever happened. We also wonder if the fires raging for so long in eastern Canada played a role in either affecting reproductive success or migrational movements away from smoke. We thank all the many people that visited the watch this year including two individuals from California and one from New Zealand! It is fun to be able to tally nighthawks together, to marvel at their migratory exploits, and to educate many visitors to the park as they walk by on the Stone Bridge. Hundreds of individuals now know a little bit more about nighthawk ecology, their migration, and the bigger issue of bird conservation and what they can do to help birds. See you next August! John Turner Patrice Domeischel -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
