My husband and I just had a flock of 27 Common Nighthawks fly overhead while we were taking a walk in our neighborhood. I've always thought of August 14 as a nighthawk migration date, because it's my father-in-law's birthday, and while he was living we'd always see nighthawks streaming over as we drove home after visiting him during the 80s and early 90s.
I've had one or two American Redstarts, and a couple of various other warblers now and then, and an Empidonax flycatcher or two, in my yard most of the times I've checked all this week. Last week two to four Cape May Warblers were still visiting, but now that there are no cherries left in our cherry tree, they and the Baltimore Orioles have disappeared. Each day I seem to have one or two more White-throated Sparrows and Red-breasted Nuthatches visiting. My Evening Grosbeaks were still present today, too. I'm not sure where they are when not in my yard, but during our walk we saw a flock of at least 16 fly from our yard to the southeast. I love the early migration, when migrants are still few and far between but are out there if you take time to search. But there's little I love more than watching nighthawks fly overhead. Oh, yesterday I got some pretty lovely eye-level closeups of an immature Mourning Dove preening on the powerline to my house. I posted them on my blog: http://lauraerickson.blogspot.com/ Best, Laura -- Laura Erickson Duluth, MN For the love, understanding, and protection of birds There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. —Rachel Carson Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
