Ed & Tweeters,

Common Nighthawks are still relatively numerous in northeastern Thurston
County, particularly over open areas such as the "cheese factory" clear-cut
in Lacey (soon to be a Target warehouse), Meriwood and Vicwood Golf Courses,
and sometimes the Nisqually refuge. Numbers have dropped somewhat from a
peak in about 1995, when much of the area was covered (uncovered?) in
clear-cuts, and I counted at least 70 in the air at once over what's now the
Vicwood Golf Course. Note that they were more common in 1995 than they were
back in say, 1988, before the woods were cleared off.

I've also seen them over clear-cuts in the Capitol Forest, in the Bald Hills
area in southern Thurston County, and over Samish Bay in Skagit County.

I managed to find a nighthawk "nest" near a storm water retention pond in
the Meridian Campus industrial area in Lacey. I suspect they can co-exist
with developments such as golf courses and warehouses, as long as enough
open ground remains for nest concealment. If all such ground is reduced to
parking lots and rooftops, then I suppose they're at the mercy of the crows
and gulls.

Eric Kraig
Olympia, WA
kraige at oclc.org


-----Original Message-----
From: newboldwildlife at netscape.net [mailto:newboldwildlife at netscape.net]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 9:39 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Nighthawk near Aberdeen


Last night (Sunday) Delia and I saw a Nighthawk flying over the road about
2/3 of the way from Westport to Aberdeen, WA at dusk. What a beautiful
sight.

I know I sound like a broken record, but I’m terribly worried for the
Nighthawk long term and disappointed that the local extinction of the
Nighthawk in the tricounty basin here never got much attention. This is a
bird whose only defense against Corvid nest predation is camouflage, which
doesn’t work when Crows achieve the densities they do in urban and
suburbanized areas.

I’d be interested if anyone has been seeing Nighthawks out there
anywhere on the Westside and not reporting them to Tweeters?

--Ed Newbold, Tweeter by digest, residential Beacon Hill--where the Red
Legged Frogs "sing"-- Seattle WA newboldwildlife at netscape.net