Has anyone else seen seen a number of Common Nighthawks swooping around about 100+ high in the late afternoons recently?
For the past two days at around 5pm we have seen a group of over two dozen Nighthawks darting around through the sky, apparently feeding on insects, over our back yard. They swoop this way and that and are very agile, somehow avoiding colliding with each other. They stay for about 10 minutes and then move on.
When we first saw them on Sunday we didn't know what they were, but we identified them in "Birds of the Squam Lakes Region" which was recently published by the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center.
We're hoping to see them again this afternoon!
Here's what they look like: (Photo courtesy
www.allaboutbirds.org)