Monday, October 21, 2013

An unusual visitor

Well, more than just one. We had hundreds of Common Nighthawks fly over our property several times this fall. We rarely spotted any in our valley, but suddenly, this year, there have been many sightings in our town. Wacky.
Click on photo to see the little black dots that are the Nighthawks
Common Nighthawks are pretty cool birds. They're in the Nightjar family. AllAboutBirds has a nice concise description of them. Even though they describe it as owl-like (I assume because they're generally nocturnal), when they're soaring overhead, they really look more like gulls or falcons with their pointy, boomerang-like wings.

If you want a more in-depth article, check out the American Birding Association link. ABA chose it as their Bird of the Year.

Have you ever seen one?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams