Ed and other tweets,
I have seen nighthawk about one a year in Seattle, I doubt they were
breeding thogh two of the dates are in the breeding season.
The dates are 1996-1998:
1996: September 17th, flying over Jackson Park GC.
1997: June 23rd, Magnuson.
1998: July 4th, Flying along the north shore of Union Bay, near Gasworks
park.
Since I have only lived in Seattle for a couple of years I am wondering
what might have changed within Seattle during the last 20 years to
decrease Nighthawk in Seattle? Outside of the Seattle area I know
development, loss of insect loads play a part, but were the insect loads
high in Seattle 20 years ago, I know development was already pretty
severe.
I know that Nighthawks still persist in decent numbers in other areas of
the greater Puget area.
On the Purple Finch thread I think they are fairly common in the rural and
suburban areas of Puget Sound. In both the valley, out by North Bend and
parks over on the eastside I hear them rather frequently singing in the
spring. Again somebody that has the data,was there been a high level of
abundance in Seattle area (breeding) in the 70's?
Generally these species seem like species that should do very poorly in
the city and Seattle has been a large city for some time. =20
Thanks,

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood


On 9 May 1999, Ed Newbold wrote:

> Dear Tweeters,
> It=92s great to hear of Brendan McGarry's nighthawk sighting in Seattle w=
ithin
> the last year, in my experience a totally rare event now. At the risk o=
f
> beating on a dead horse, I mean a dead goatsucker (not to mention soundin=
g
> like a curmudgeon), I have to bring up the fact that back in the late
> seventies this bird was a regular breeder in Seattle, it=92s =93song=94 a=
part of
> the sound track of late summer evenings here. I am again calling attenti=
on to
> this loss in an advertisement in the Seattle Weekly in the Summer Guide, =
which
> will be out around Memorial day. By the way, I also will bring up what I
> think will be the next candidate for local extinction, the Purple Finch. =
I
> know very little or next to nothing about this bird, except my own anecdo=
tal
> reports of not seeing it as much anymore and the Seattle Christmas bird c=
ount
> reports which Hal Opperman kindly sent me, which are very alarming, and
> reports from the Portland Audubon Society which are ditto. (I don=92t kn=
ow if
> our wintering birds are our breeding birds or not or a mixture). Thanks =
in
> advance for comments.
>=20
> -Ed Newbold, Seattle (newboldwildlife at netscape.net)
>=20
>=20
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Get your own FREE, personal Netscape WebMail account today at http://webm=
ail.netscape.com.
>=20