Hi Tweeters,

About thirty minutes ago, I saw a Common Nighthawk flying northbound
over the Maple Leaf neighborhood of north Seattle. While walking north
on 8th Ave. NE at 90th street, I looked up in the still fading sky to
see what I first thought was a large bat fluttering over a house.
Immediately after the first impression I recognized it unquestionably
as a nighthawk. I expect to see bats in my neighborhood, but not
nighthawks. It did a bouncy circle over the house and bounded off to
the north. I ran down the street to try to keep it in sight but it
disappeared over the trees behind my house a few blocks north. It did
not call.

This sight made me very happy, especially after seeing an earlier
report within the past week.

I've seen a nighthawk in Seattle on just one other occasion, a brief
view in 1999 or so of one flying eastbound over Licton Springs (north
of Greenlake) while I was on another after-sunset walk.

Alyssa Sampson
Maple Leaf, Seattle
alyssasampson at comcast.net