Posted by Michelle Davis on July 10, 2001 at 11:40:40:
In Reply to: Tailless grackles posted by Bill Boeringer on July 10, 2001 at 10:22:05:
There definently are a lot of Purple martins on the move right now; a couple weeks ago while watching an approaching huge thunderstorm and enjoying the drop in temperature, I noticed hundreds of martins flying in the wind.
As for Common Nighthawks; I occasionally travel to remote, generally inaccessable parts of Everglades National Park for work, and have seen very good numbers of nighthawks out there this year. There have been several large burns out in the 'Glades this spring, and in the aftermath nighthawks have been breeding like crazy in the newly-created bare areas. I am now speculating wildly that perhaps nighthawks that normally would've bred 'in town' or wherever, may have moved out into these burn areas this summer instead. I have no quantitative data to back this up; I'm just wondering out loud. While setting up a study plot back in June we flushed females off of 4 different nests. The young are amazing, and the female's behavior was a sight to behold as she fluttered a few feet away and then growled and hissed at us. Sort of reminded me of the cottonmouth response! I imagine that anyone looking for nighthawks could check some of the burned areas around that happened close to a road- weren't there some near Krome
last month?
Sounds like it is time to start keeping an eye out for those Louisiana waterthrushes; and then Ceruleans, and then Mourning warblers....treats for those who brave July & August outdoors!
Cheers,
Michelle