For a good while I've thought about what it might take to bring back this
bird that I expect many besides myself have an emotional attachment to with
fond memories of summer nights here and in other parts of the continent
punctuated by their heart string plucking "peent" calls and their acrobatic
twists and dives for bugs.

I don't know how much the decline of pebble roofs has been responsible for
the loss of our Seattle Nighthawks and those in other areas where they have
disappeared or become scarce, but I just imagined having numerous roofs at
the edge of an area near where some Nighthawks still survive that area
covered both egg sized pebbles and with replicas of their eggs and maybe
even chunks of wood modeled to approximate the shape, size and color of
Nighthawks, then punctuated with tufts of native bunch grass and scattered
with other bit of bushy (I would insist native) vegetation. Though I don't
know just to which extent our exponentially expanded crow population has
been responsible for the decline, I question whether these decoys would be
enough to make it hard for our now much more numerous crows to spot the
adults, eggs and young. They're too smart to be easilly fooled. If we put
owl, eagle and cat statues on the edges of the roofs the crows might mob
them and would soon realize they were fakes. I could also imagine having
fake or dead chicks and eggs that are filled with something the crows would
detest or would cause them to feel ill if ingested, though I wouldn't
advocate adding anything lethal. There may be other ways to reduce crow
predation and keep most crows away.

Just as bluebird box trails can be created to extend bluebird populations
along a line from an area where they still survived into areas where they no
longer occurred, I imagine Nighthawk roof trails could be extended into
Seattle and other areas where the Nighthawks have been lost or have become
scarce from areas such as those mentioned in previous posts where they still
survive or are still doing well. I could imagine calling it "The Kevin Li
Memorial Nighthawk Roof Trail". (Before he died I had suggested that he
work next on the challenge of bringing back our beloved Nighthawks after
having such great success with our beloved Purple Martins.)

Ed's post below and the report of seeing a Nighthawk over the Mariner
stadium just gave me another idea. We might re-name the "Seahawks" the
"Nighthawks". Players would brag that their masterful ability to twist and
turn avoiding the tackles of the opposing team was akin to the powerful
ability of of those masters of the night (and day) skies - the Nightahwks.
Osprey are now doing well again and no longer need the boost from our
football team. This could also promote night games for our football team.
Stewart Wechsler
Ecological Consulting
West Seattle
206 932-7225
ecostewart at quidnunc.net

-Advice on the most site-appropriate native plants
and how to enhance habitat for the maximum diversity
of plants and animals
-Educational programs, nature walks and field trips
-Botanical Surveys




-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Newbold [mailto:ednewbold1 at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 1:42 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Yet more on Nighthawks, C + Lesser



Hi All,

... Before the arrival of settlers from eastern US, the Nighthawk mainly
nested on logjams in rivers, which were huge and ubiquitous. It no doubt
also used gravel bars on rivers, and presumably prairies maintained by
Native Americans. When the logjams were removed (It took over 10 years to
remove the Skagit?s logjam) and the rivers diked, this bird had to find an
all-new nesting strategy. It needs a clear path up to the sky and a low
density of predators, because it has very little defensive ability.

Roof-top nesting was very successful for Nighthawks until the latter half
of the 1900s. I came to Seattle at the tail end of the Nighthawk era, still
I remember being so enamored in the late 70s of the fact that each Seattle
neighborhood had its breeding Nighthawk pair, even the downtown.
...

The decline of Nighthawks on the lowland Northwestern part of the
continent has been massive. Here?s what Marshall et al in Birds of Oregon
write: "Anecdotal reports indicate a drastic reduction in numbers in the
Willamette Valley during the latter half of the 20th century. Reported as
common to abundant from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s (cites 6
observers). Currently uncommon to rare and local in the Willamette Valley. "

By contrast, in their otherwise wonderful book Birds of Washington Wahl et
al have somewhat understated the issue in my opinion: "...there is concern
that lowland populations have declined (in the Puget Trough)."

Both books downplay the declines on the east side of their respective
states, where Nighthawks are viewed as quite a bit more stable and not in
trouble. I claim no scientific stature for my own views, but I doubt it.

I am thrilled to hear of all the sightings in the Puget trough lately of
both Nighthawk species which are a positive development no matter how you
slice them?it means the birds are alive.

However it could relate to some horrible breeding conditions in the
hinterlands. I?m here on the line between the Sonoran & Chihuahuan desert in
a canyon (visiting my in-laws who are putting a conservation easement on
their land) where I expect to see small flocks of Lesser Nighthawks in the
evenings but so far we?ve seen only one bird per night max. With the total
rainfall so far this year at 1", the worst on record here, a lot of birds
aren?t breeding this year, and Lesser Nighthawks could definitely be in that
category. (But there are cumulous clouds over the Chircahuas as I write &
great hope this place will green up into a paradise any minute?like
Flagstaff just started to.)

A special thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to report their
Nighthawk sightings to Tweeters this year.

Go Nighthawks!

Ed Newbold ednewbold1 at yahoo.com from the AZ-NM border where the Lucifer?s
Hummingbirds are most uncooperative photo-subjects, the Blacktail Rattlers
are most courteous, and the Spotted Skunk young are cuter than I could have
imagined. Cheers
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