There were no large kettles yesterday (August 26) at Chestnut Ridge as there were on Wednesday, but the tally was certainly greater: ~183 Common Nighthawk. Only 31 of those were counted before 16:00 EST; the majority were spotted between 16:00 to 17:30. Most of the flocks we saw were northbound. In the last minutes of our count, however, some began exiting from view to the south (and, to a lesser degree, to the west), so I cannot rule out that a couple of these birds were double-counted.
Kindly Yours, \\ Arthur On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 9:25 PM, Arthur W. Green <awgr...@bedfordaudubon.org> wrote: > I intended to run my binocular across the dark, overcast sky one last > time before closing the day's count at Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch, > located just outside of Mount Kisco. Instead, under a very light > westerly wind at 15:59 (EST), I came away with a cluster of birds due > east of the watch platform flying only a few hundred feet above the > ridge tops. For just a second, I assumed it was a late day movement > of Broad-winged Hawk piling up in a thermal; after I shook myself from > my late-day stupor, I could see plainly that it was a veritable kettle > of Common Nighthawk! 46 of them. Within minutes these birds began > heading north, streaming out in twos and threes until they were > nowhere to be seen. > > At 16:11, I spied at least 20 more nighthawk southeast of the watch > platform blinking out of the haze at the reaches of visibility near > the Long Island Sound. I could not tell which direction they were > headed, nor was I able to count all of them before they disappeared > from view. > > At 16:27, two nighthawk passed along a similar flight line as the > first larger kettle. These were the final birds I observed before I > finally went home at 17:00. Including the individual I observed late > AM, the total for today is at least 69 Common Nighthawk. An exciting > cap to a trying day! > > My colleague, Tait Johansson, had observed a flock of 19 nighthawks > south of the platform on August 17 at ~17:30, spotting another > individual north of the platform around the same time. We see > nighthawks each year at Chestnut Ridge in early fall, and I regret > that the timing of our coverage probably does not account for the > actual number of nighthawk that travel within viewing distance of the > platform. > > \\ Arthur -- Arthur W. Green <awgr...@bedfordaudubon.org> Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch, Bedford, NY http://www.bedfordaudubon.org/hawkwatch.html http://www.hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=534 -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
