My annual visit to Prospect evening during late August targets a migratory species that comes out at dusk: Common Nighthawk.
So setting up my usual vantage at Nethermead triangle, I sat down at 630 to watch the sky. A full hour ( almost) passes before I spotted the first nighthawk at 7:22 pm coming in from the west skirting Lookout Hills north slope. I got on it and saw immediately two birds. Both flew over the southern boundary of Quaker Cemetery before reversing course,heading towards Lookout. At this point, they joined two more as I see all four in my bins, the small flock heading due south and gone. They were the only night hawks I saw all evening as darkness descended. No lingering for the hurry up birds
Well, better than nothing.
"The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place...To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of years, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.
--Rachel Carson"
--Rachel Carson"
