Greetings,
At about five-thirty this afternoon my wife Kathryn and I were driving north
on Route 234 at the southern boundary of Manassas National Battlefiled Park
(MNBP) when I noticed a couple Common Nighthawks over the Country Inn Suites.
We took a quick right onto Battleview Parkway and headed east into the
Battlefield. We saw another group of nine Nighthawks, and off further in the
distance
could see twenty or so more. We eventually made it to a horse trailer
parking area in the extreme southeast corner of MNBP, and were delighted to
find a
couple hundred Nighthawks swirling around over the tree tops and just above the
fields. They seemed to be moving to the west as they foraged, but not
purposefully. The area was also teeming with migrating Green Darners (Anax
junius),
which many Nighthawks were eating. This was the first time that I'd seen
hundreds of Nighthawks at eye level or even below. Laura and Alan Catterton
joined us at about six PM, and by then the numbers had dwindled some, however
we
were noticing that the birds present were seemingly still heading west.
There were several times that a 360 degree scan of the horizon and fields
would permit counts of up to a hundred Nighthawks. Then at around six-fifteen
the birds did a complete 180 and were heading east in earnest. I did a few
scans, tallying 60-80 birds at a whack. It's hard to put a count on the amount
of
Nighthawks seen tonight, but my guess is a minimum of 500.
At about seven PM we left, Laura and Alan headed to a couple different areas
at MNBP to see if any were about, and my wife and I went to the stables. We
found no more birds, but have no idea how The Cattertons fared. Just south of
I-66 on 234 were a few more Nighthawks overhead as we headed into Manassas.
Quite a spectacular event. I've enjoyed the Nighthawk show at Tyson's Corner
many times, but this was a bit more fulfilling having them just over our
heads. It was easy to see plumage details with the unaided eye on scores of
birds.
Cheers,
Todd Day
Jeffersonton, VA
BlkVulture@xxxxxxx
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