CO-ORDINATED NIGHTHAWK WATCH 2006: SOME THOUGHTS

 

  1. Well, we had one good night at least. And every team that went out Saturday had nighthawks, which is unusual. The weather as we measured it at the Leicester site was mostly cloudy at first, with considerable clearing as the watch progressed. Winds were light, measured at 2.8 mph at the maximum, from the east/southeast. Sunday: well, the less said the better (OK, rain and more rain), but amazingly, we did not go “nighthawk-less” for that day thanks to John and Kim’s efforts in Grafton. Boy, did Sheila and I try in some spots in northern RI (Corridor) Sunday, but no such luck. We did witness a sizeable shorebird fallout at Arnold’s Mill’s Reservoir in Cumberland. Standing out in the rain with full gear and dripping scope did harken back to that horrible Birdathon this year. Not a memory I wanted to relive so soon after it occurred!

 

 

  1. Several new locations NOT in the Corridor were tried this year. I would like to see one of the days efforts next year concentrate on watching from locations to the west of the Corridor but east of the Connecticut River Valley. There are many folks now watching nighthawks to the east of the Corridor (like Steve Sutton), and for decades folks like Tom Gagnon have religiously kept nighthawk totals from atop Mt. Tom. In the last several years, our efforts have told us a lot about nighthawks in the Corridor. But still almost nothing (other than a few anecdotal reports) is known about nighthawk migration in the Chicopee, Quabog, Qunnebaug and French River Drainages. The reason I and others are very curious about this is that often it seems that when we (in Leicester for instance) have a good night as far as nighthawk numbers go, Tom (in the Valley) does NOT and the reverse is even more often true. I would be very interested in finding out what happens to nighthawks in between. Thanks to the efforts of the Cormiers in Holland and Brimfield, we do know that good numbers of nighthawks migrate through those areas. This year Chris Ellison did some watching for the first time from the Barre Falls Dam hawkwatch spot and had a decent night of triple digit birds. Where are the key areas to see nighthawks in the Quabbin? Monson? Brookfields? What direction are they flying? Do they go to the Valley or are they simply heading south into Connecticut? On 8/24, driving along Rt. 9 en route to the Valley to visit friends at prime nighthawk migration time, we witnessed the following (quote from Massbird post)  “We were in Belchertown visiting Val and Scott. En route to Belchertown along Rt.9, we came across several flocks of Nighthawks: BROOKFIELD (70: most heading towards the river); WARE (48: many low and feeding; heading SW); BELCHERTOWN (37 all heading south, all pretty high and just moving.)” My impression is that none of these birds were heading for the central Connecticut Valley. Do the Valley’s birds come from somewhere other than eastern MA? And what about beyond the Valley? Certainly there have been anecdotal counts from the southern Berkshires, but no regular numbers have ever been forthcoming. Are locations like Bartholomew’s Cobble and Great Barrington potential hot spots for nighthawk migration just waiting for some regular coverage to be revealed.

 

 

  1. SOME THINGS LEARNED THIS YEAR AND STILL MORE QUESTIONS: A. Though rivers and ponds are important locations along which nighthawks migrate and feed, these waterways do not completely determine the movements of nighthawks. Consistently the Rt.56 overlook in Leicester has had dynamite counts and most of the birds are moving around or over the hill. They are moving away from the Blackstone and only the small Coes Reservoir and Patch Reservoir and city reservoirs are nearby. And they don’t seem to linger over these bodies. Are they merely moving from one watercourse to the next? Are the Leicester birds moving to the Quabog for instance? B. The traditional Notre Dame watch site is no longer be as good as it once was. This is likely due entirely to the growth of trees around the periphery, which have slowly but surely hampered the view. Look at the differences in Saturday’s counts between Rt.56 and Notre Dame. The airport hill is visible from Notre Dame, yet the Notre Dame site only saw a handful of birds. C. Some interesting nightly totals are now being gotten by folks from the Malls off Rt. 146 in Millbury (near the Worcester line) prior to the Count Weekend. Alan Marble unfortunately did not count Saturday night, but it may be that folks should ditch Notre Dame and move to the Mall. Granted, this is not as quiet a site, but then again, neither is Rt. 56 in Leicester! There are also other city locations that have yet to be tried too, like from the A-field behind Holy Name School. D. The two BIG Nights (and one “sorta” big night) happened during the week leading up to the count. On 8/22 (974) birds were counted from the Rt.56 overlook and on 8/23 (1029) birds were counted and finally (539) were counted on 8/24. E. We always need to keep in mind that Nighthawk movements can be very LOCAL. Just look at the differences between the counts in the MA section of the Corridor. I get the feeling you could be on the wrong side of a hill and miss hundreds of birds that pass by on the other side. F. The view from the “watch spot” really matters. The Rt. 56 overlook may be one of the best views in the Corridor, almost a lofty full 360. Are most birds passing over airport hill as our consistently high totals seem to indicate or is it simply that we have clearer, more distant views than other sites and therefore see more birds? I definitely think it’s the latter. An extended view is also critical in keeping track of the sometimes seemingly crazy movements of the nighthawks, which can wander back and forth.  G. The mystery of nighthawk “kettles”. The more I witness this phenomena, the more I am fascinated and wonder why they form. It seems possible they are for feeding only, not for migration, as is the case with raptors. Some of these nighthawk kettles rival Broad-winged Hawk kettles in their height and amount of birds involved. Are flying ant swarms this high and this large? Are other insect species involved? We witnessed some individuals flying distances back north to join a kettle, so there has to be an attraction. Are they also social? We need more detailed observation of kettles in the future to start unraveling this mystery. H. The movements of nighthawks are complex and not as easy to understand as hawks. Their movements seem to be affected by weather; food availability; wind; terrain; water and likely other factors too. Bart Kamp, veteran hawk and nighthawk watcher really believes the movements of fronts are critical to witnessing large movements. He believes the night of the passing of cold front is not good, but 2-3 days AFTER the passage of that front often brings large numbers. This seemed to hold true for the week leading up to the count, but there always seem to be exceptions. Are there standard routes, flyways, along which nighthawks migrate? Do young birds follow adults? How are nighthawk movements affected by development and changes in the landscape? As an example of how complex nighthawk movements are, read the following post to Massbird and Rick Quimby’s site by Sheila and I: “We had to work late, and so did not arrive at the nighthawk watch location till 6:20Pm. BART KAMP was already there since 6PM. From his arrival, he witnessed a huge, broad front of COMMON NIGHTHAWKS moving directly EAST (ie: contrary to typical movements) into the city of Worcester, literally from end to end of the sky. We caught the end of this movement and tallied (974) birds. Then by 6:35 there was a lull, and by 6:42 birds were then seen moving in singles and small groups BACK over the hill now to the SW. Some of these birds were likely the birds seen previously moving into the city, but some could also have been new migrants from the east and north. From 6:42-7:45Pm, we tallied (331) birds, almost all moving low, again over a broad front. We stopped when viewing got too difficult. Because so many of the birds were so low, we could have easily missed many birds flying north or south around the Rt.56 hill. This is a great example of how complex the movements of nighthawks are and folks who do not have a broad view (we have almost a 360 degree view on Rt. 156) need to be careful not to recount birds doubling back.” To our eyes, it looked like an enormous movement of birds initially flew INTO the city from the west, but soon after that movement stopped; at least a third of those birds then totally reversed direction and continued migrating. Were they feeding? We saw no evidence of that that night other than passing several low (tree top level) birds over houses as we made our way to the site that night. If they are feeding, how do they know that at that moment, that specific location is a great place to search for food? Can they see the prey items? Do they notice other nighthawks feeding and it becomes like a shark feeding frenzy? Or, can nighthawks use other senses, like sense the pheromes that flying ants exude when swarming? These are questions that can only be solved by recording more observations of migration combined with laboratory studies by ornithologists. I. Even under horrible conditions some nighthawks can be found with searching. See John and Kim’s report for Sunday and Bill Cormier’s report for Friday (when it was also raining). On future counts, my advice is: if it is raining, change locations and watch at ponds, reservoirs, and rivers.

 

  1. THE FUTURE.

 

    1. We need better coverage in the northern Rhode Island section. I want to thank Eugenia Marks for her efforts, but we need even more observers in that critical area.
    2. Start scouting out locations to set up a watch to the west of the Corridor for next year. I have a list already of places I would love to check out in New Braintree, the Brookfields, Monson and Quabbin. Certainly we should have a team at the tower in South Quabbin or the Enfield Lookout. The Pelham Overlook on Rt.202 is also a possibility. We now know the Barre Falls Dam site is a good one.
    3. A plan to consider would be to do one Corridor night and one night west of the Corridor. But even on that second night, it will be important to have some of the anchor spots in the Corridor watched, like the Rt. 56 location, so we can compare our sightings with known locations.
    4. It may be time to consider organizing a SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND-WIDE approach to monitoring nighthawks. This would include expanding the watch weekend to include all locations (across MA to include the Berkshires, Rhode Island, and Connecticut); mapping all sightings on a website; and holding a yearly conference say at Broad Meadow or some other location. Steve Sutton has started this on a much more local level, but he does not have the connections to birders in the Valley and further west or Rhode Island and Connecticut birders. Talking to Tom Gagnon this year, he would really like to see an approach that includes EVERYBODY. And I agree. Let me know your feelings about this and we will proceed from there.
    5.  One last thing. It was interesting to note this year, groups of other folks, with bins, standing at the Rt. 56 spot. These are folks I do not know and only a few spoke to us. They seemed to be looking for nighthawks, but none of them had a SCOPE. The ones we spoke with, we pointed out some nighthawks to. Nighthawk watching may be catching on. Weird.

 

Mark Lynch

Moa.lynch@verizon.net