My slant on the decrease of Common Nighthawks has been that this was a
fairly marginal species in western Cascadia in precaucasian days, because
the climate just doesn't favor large numbers of appropriate-sized flying
insects (this is the worst area for an entomologist in the lower 48,
believe me). During the period of intense logging, the landscape opened
up, and insects actually became more abundant. I suspect nighthawks were
favored then, just like Lewis' Woodpeckers, bluebirds, and others. With
the subsequent "succession" (all clearcuts were fated to be either
second-growth forest or shopping malls), conditions became marginal or
worse again. I wonder if the decline in Purple Martins may be attributable
to the same things.

Nighthawks used to be common all over the lowlands, and they declined
everywhere, not just in the near-coastal areas where gulls began to nest on
rooftops. There are still some around, but it's becoming more and more of
a rare and wondrous occasion to see one west of the mountains. They are
still in the Fort Lewis area, where you can still find open areas that
aren't developed. Probably many of you know that nighthawks are still
common in the East, which, for all of its problems, still has abundant
insect populations. The cities are full of nighthawks, Chimney Swifts, and
Purple Martins.

Again, creeping habitat alteration along with succession would get my vote,
rather than something more insidious like pesticides, cutting of the Amazon
forests, or even those scapegoats, the gulls.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416