Thanks to a phone call from Greg Garmer, who reported seeing 100s of nighthawks while driving along the North Shore near the McQuade Safe Harbor east of Duluth this evening, I rushed down to the Duluth Lakewalk in time to witness a relatively early big push of nighthawks along the North Shore. In just one hour of counting between 7:00 and 8:00 PM, I tallied 4,241 individuals! Although this is far fewer than the record migration counts obtained in past decades (The Loon 63:68-69), it's my personal best total during the 20 years that I've lived in Duluth. None of the top 10 high counts for this species during fall migration are earlier than 14 August and the average date for all high counts is 24 August.
While driving down to the Lakewalk at 25th Ave East, I saw dozens of nighthawks foraging at or near tree top level that would have been difficult or impossible to see from the Lakewalk. It's possible that 100s or 1000s of birds passed by unnoticed at tree top level or passed by before 7:00 PM. At the time of this writing, I don't know if anyone was counting nighthawks from Hawk Ridge or elsewhere along the North Shore. During the first part of the hour, the nighthawks were actively foraging and attracted the attention of hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls hoping to join the smorgasbord. As the evening progressed, the nighthawks gradually increased altitude and foraged less often as their migration became more purposeful. Winds were calm the entire hour with temperatures in the low 70s and dewpoints 55-57 degrees, creating near perfect conditions for watching these fascinating birds. Thanks, Greg! -- Peder H. Svingen Duluth, MN [email protected] ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
