Subject: nighthawk behavior
Date: Jul 19 16:16:51 1995
From: James Neitzel - neitzelj at elwha.evergreen.edu


I went out to the large clearcut north of the Thurston county landfill
last night-the spot previously mentioned as home to lazuli buntings and
chipping and clay-colored sparrows. Several nighthawks were active. ONe
pair flew in an intricate follow the leader pattern, calling and taking
turns leading. Since the field guides say you can identify male and
female nighthawks, I tried it-the white chin marks were very distict on
the males, while the white tail bar was harder to see. The was fairly
clearly one male and one female. Nearby where five-six solo birds, all
male as far as I could tell, that would occasionally intrude on this
territory and attempt to cut in. These cut-in efforts were preceeded by
the intruder pausing and increasing the wing beat rate and repeating
several "peent" calls. These intrusions turned into chaotic three bird
chases that always saw the intruder leave and the pair remain on the
territory. The male birds would frequently go into a dive and make one
of my favorite noises, the rattle of the primaries when coming out of
their dives. (Just as some people have described a red-breasteed
nuthatch call as being a little tin truck horn, the best description I
can come up with for the nighthawk wing noise is a small truck braking by
using its compression /air brakes.) The birds were flying very low and I
stayed until it got dark, watching the show.

On returning home I checked out Ehrlich et als handbook. They say that
the dive during courtship is for the male to show the female a potential
nest sight. A few questions come to mind-Why only 1 pair and several
solo males? Do the apparently solo males have mates who are already on
the ground sitting on eggs? Somewhere (can't remember now) I remember
reading that nighthawks are one of the latest migrants and nesters. This
certainly seems true here. The area just north of the landfill on Hoagum
road seems dense with nighthawks, and at least one other clear cut off
meridian road had flying birds on my way home. I have twice seen solo
birds 2-5 miles away from this area this summer.

Other sights and sounds-mob of 50 crows, red-tailed hawk, savannah
sparrow, hear numerous yellow-throat and white-crowned sparrows.
Fireweed in flower, top of Mt. Rainier, the biggest, most robust Scotch
Broom I have ever seen in my life, busily firing seeds from drying pods.

Jim Neitzel
The Evergreen State College
neitzelj at elwha.evergreen.edu