Thursday night, the 7 October, I had a meeting at my son's middle school.  Leaving the meeting at 7:30 PM, I heard a strange sound - almost falcon-like peeer - peeer- peer.    I had no idea what I was hearing.  I stopped under a bright, buggy light to talk to a friend, and soon heard many of these sounds, right overhead.  I almost blinded myself by the light, then finally moved where I could get a look around it, rather than directly in it.  I saw what could only be COMMON NIGHTHAWKS flying around the light, making noise and apparently grabbing bugs.  They flew in and out for about ten minutes, then disappeared.   I went home and listened to various tapes of nighthawks, and do believe the sound to be the "peeent" of that bird.  

The ONLY hesitancy I have is that the birds appeared very pale underneath.  I didn't get a good view in the light, and when I did, I believe they were over-illuminated from below, so I did NOT see the classic wingbars - but the whole bird was, I think, washed out in the light.   No view was very long.  In the past, I've seen nighthawks at a distance, high in the air, with less harsh light, and the wingbars were very plain.   Nothing was plain on these birds - they were fast-moving, washed out, noise making blurs.    But the shape, the flight pattern and apparently the sound were classic for COMMON NIGHTHAWK.  I believe there were at least 6 working that light.  By 8 PM the show was completely over. 

I went back on Friday night.  About 7:30, there was one Nighthawk that sounded, and I saw the bird pass over the light, but did not swoop down, despite an abundance of bugs.  That was the only one that passed that night, from 7 - 8 PM.  

Joanne


Joanne Howl, DVM

West River, MD