(Posted by Janet C. Green <jgr...@d.umn.edu> via moumn.org) After four days of fog, yesterday, August 24th, brought the annual peak of the Common Nighthawk migration. Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory posted 27,580 nighthawks for the day. Our apartment overlooks the shore of Lake Superior at 40th Ave. E. in Duluth and has a 180- degree view of the lake and sits 40-50 feet above the water. We (John and I) spotted the migration from our windows just before 5:00 pm. The flight at that time was a whirling mass, mixed in with a few gulls, hawking for insects like the Ring-bill Gulls do sometimes. The nighthawks came in pulses at first and then began streaming over the lake from NE to SW. They could easily be counted from our deck because the birds were fairly close to shore; John did a test count at 5:45 (300 birds in 2 minutes). The peak flight was 5:30 to 6:15 pm, and then tapered off to ending about 6:45 pm. The count from 5:00 to 6:45 pm I estimated as about 7-8,000 birds.
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