This evening I was strolling the Fall Creek neighborhood of Ithaca with my son. My goal was to see Common Nighthawks. His goal was to pleasantly kill time while his laundry dried. The playground at the Fall Creek Elementary School seemed a good spot, with plenty of sky, plus equipment sturdy enough to withstand a young adult with a passion for parkour. It was during the window of time when I'd seen several Common Nighthawks distantly east of Cass Park three evenings ago, so I was optimistic, but not desperate. The closest I'd seen so far this evening was a gull commuting toward the lake, as many do at that time of day, but this gull veered as if hawking an insect. Then I got help from another birder with eyes to the sky. Garrett MacDonald was fueling up at the Mirabito gas station by Purity Ice Cream on NYS-13 when he noticed at least 9 Common Nighthawks foraging, so he sent out a text RBA at 7:17pm. By shifting our vantage to the slight rise at the east end of Queen Street I was able to see them distantly over buildings and between trees, also counting 9. We hustled west, garnering several additional sightings. By the time we passed the Cooperative Extension building at W Lincoln St & Willow Av, some were flying directly overhead, and Brendan was able, naked-eye, to discern the white bar across the primaries of one bird. From the grounds of the ScienCenter near Franklin St & Alice Miller Way I made my maximum count of 13, all to the south and still in their crazy feeding flight. While I sent out a text RBA at 7:30pm they disappeared. We headed back to the laundromat, where the clothes were dry.
--Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
