Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Tonight was the best nighthawk migration I have seen in many years, and the best I have ever seen in Ulster County. The late great Hans Weber used to say that August 25 was the peak date for nighthawks migrating through this area. Well tonight he was right on. We were having a bite to eat outside in Saugerties at 6:15 PM when I looked up and saw two nighthawks flying over the village. So we hopped in the car and headed toward the thruway and got on Rte 32 north for a mile where we saw several nighthawks flying back and forth over the road. We pulled off onto Malden Turnpike where we witnessed the mother lode of nighthawks converging high over the fields there. At one point I counted 125 in one small area. They seemed to gain altitude, then drifted west-north-west until out of sight. Then we went to the Saugerties lighthouse where there were 10 more flying northwesterly at 7:40 PM. On the way home there were another 10 flying back and forth over Rte 9W south of Saugerties. It seemed like everywhere we looked there were nighthawks until darkness set in. I would conservatively estimate 150 total. It doesn't get much better :-)
Good Night Hawks, Frank Murphy Saugerties, NY Ulster County [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
