>Actually, I have seen large concentrations, probably 50-100, a few times in
>fall in eastern Washington as well, although never west of the mountains.

About three years ago in the spring, a friend and I saw an estimated
"300ish" flock of nighthawks over the spring which forms the headwaters
of the Metolious River in the Oregon Cascades, a bit east of the
crest in pond pine country. There were tons of insects around, it
was late afternoon, and I've never seen anything like that number
of nighthawks at once before or after. It was after a spring Elderhostel
I taught, which means it was probably a week or so after the first
nighthawks arrive at Malheur 200 miles to the SE.

In response to Neil's "huh?" post regarding "the shorebird flats at
Parking Lot 'C'" - (reputed curlew sand). I waded through my
tweeters backlog to see if anyone had answered your question, didn't
see one, so here we go:

This is the parking lot at the base of the South Jetty of the Columbia
River, in Oregon's Ft. Stevens state park. Along with Parking Lot
"D" and Trestle Bay, this area holds a lot of good migrant records,
both passerine and shorebirderine. The "C" flats lie along the
base of the jetty west of the parking lot. There is no entrance
fee to use this part of the State Park.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>