Subject: Re: Common Nighthawks
Date: Apr 22 10:31:39 1998
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca


Hi Tweets,

Alan Bauer writes:

>Can anyone confirm for me whether COMMON NIGHTHAWKS might be in the area by
>now or not? My reason for asking is that last night around 9:00pm I heard
>what really sounded like one to me coming from a creek ravine at the edge of
>our property. The call was coming once about every 2-3 minutes from
>somewhere up in some alder trees from best I could tell. I was unable to
>locate anything with a flashlight. At first I thought I was hearing our
>resident BARN OWL, but the call was much shorter in length and not near as
>raspy/hissy as the BARN OWL call I am familiar with. Thus, I am about 99%
>certain I was holding a conversation with a COMMON NIGHTHAWK :-)

Not sure I can offer confirmation, but at that time of the day, Common
Nighthawk Chordeiles minor should normally be up and about flying around,
not perched in a ravine (the habitat doesn't sound right for nighthawk,
either) calling with *much* greater frequency, more like 20-30 times per
minute. As this species doesn't normally arrive into this part of Cascadia
(the part that includes your northwest and our southwest) until Week 4
May--Week 1 June, I'd think it far more likely another species, just on the
timing--not impossible, just extremely unlikely. Could your resident owl
have recently had a blessed event? Could Junior be hinting it's mealtime?

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery, and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)