Wednesday night’s thunderstorm — while spectacular — sure put a damper on seeing (and hearing) nighthawks during our Nighthawk Night Walk, but here is what we we might have seen if not for the thunderheads. This first video is a collection of beautiful still photos & crisp audio recordings of Common Nighthawks put together by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; it’s focused on nighthawks in the desert Southwest, but the identifying characteristics and sounds are the same as our Keene birds.
This next one is a 30-second, action-packed clip of a male nighthawk diving & booming over a suburban neighborhood. You can just make out his white wingbars!
Remember: if you hear booming, see nighthawks diving, or hear peenting night after night in the same location this summer (from now through mid-August), please make note of the exact time & location of your sighting and let us know! Booming is a low sound that doesn’t carry far, but if you see a nighthawk making a spectacular nosedive, it’s likely booming as well; booming & diving can both be indicators of courtship or nesting, and we’d LOVE to be able to locate a nighthawk nest (or two, if there is more than one breeding pair…) in Keene this year. On the other hand, observations of single or faraway peents from birds passing overhead on their way to someplace else don’t give us very much information…. Always feel free to email us at thelen@harriscenter.org with your reports of nighthawk sightings in southwest New Hampshire, of course, but there’s no need to rush to the phone or computer for an isolated peent.
For more information on AVEO’s efforts to study the state-endangered Common Nighthawk in Keene, click here. For information on the Project Nighthawk initiative coordinated statewide by New Hampshire Audubon, click here. Lastly, if you want daily updates on nighthawk sightings in Keene, be sure to visit AVEO on Facebook.
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