Date: 6/13/26 10:03 am From: Lisa Ruby via groups.io <lbruby1...> Subject: Re: [SanDiegoRegionBirding] the nighthawk saga (so far)--and future careful documentation
To add to Paul's information, I am pretty sure there were two Common Nighthawks. I believe, but don't know for certain, that the four of us who started walking back towards the cars first ( me, Terry Hurst , and the Theobolds) were the first to hear them, and they may not yet have taken flight when they first started calling. When we first heard them we all thought the sounds seemed to be coming from low in the brush and didn't seem to be moving much. They stopped calling for a few to several seconds, then started again and shortly after the calling restarted they both flew low right by us (we saw both at the same time, they were together at that point) still calling before everyone started seeing at least one overhead. Many of us heard at least one boom sound of a diving male. The only field mark for Common that I was able to pick out as they flew by us were the sharp tips of the wings. Not sure if anyone else saw more than that. My first recording attempt was at 8:14, just as they stopped calling briefly.
-------- Original Message -------- On Saturday, 06/13/26 at 08:47 <lehman.paul...> via groups.io [<lehman.paul...>](mailto:<lehman.paul...>) wrote:
> The Common Nighthawk situation northeast of Lake Cuyamaca is so unprecedented locally/regionally, that a few thoughts seem worth sharing. Late on 11 June when Andrew Newmark serendipitiously (a real word?) discovered the birds, he only had a macro lens along but managed a great photo of a calling, displaying male, and a second bird with it which appears to indeed be a second Common Nighthawk and presumably a female. He happened to flush one bird and that may have gotten the male up and calling/displaying, at already around 6:15+ PM-- but it was an overcast evening with already low light. Yesterday, the 12th, the assembled masses in the evening started assembling even earlier than that, but it was sunny, and we thought that because of the brighter conditions that we would have to wait longer, but we were not prepared to have to wait until we were all well into a depressed, frantic mode after 8 PM..... > > Previous records of Common Nighthawk in (true) Southern California are mostly of strictly casual migrants except for the small breeding population hanging on in the San Bernardino Mountains and a few other possible breeding-season reports in the San Gabriel and San Jacinto Mountains. This site in the San Diego mountains would be at quite a bit lower elevation and is open chaparral near grassland--much more appropriate for LESSER Nighthawk--which see below! > > Initial sightings of at least one nighthawk last evening as the light grew dim were of a bird that largely stayed low, skimming the tops of the vegetation, and which all photos obtained showed a male LESSER Nighthawk. This male Lesser was largely silent--as is typical of Lesser--but a few folks did hear a Lesser call a few times in the area. However, a number of folks believed they also briefly saw a bird that may have been a Common also flying low at about the same time, the ID on the basis of their impression of the position of the white wing-patch. It was not until finally 8:14PM that clearly a calling, sometimes displaying Common Nighthawk finally appeared for a very extended period of time, higher up in the sky--as is typical of the species--but also including multiple display dives down close to the ground. And as is typical of Common, once it started calling, it called repeatedly for long periods, NOT just once. Hopefully, if the bird remains, it will start calling and flying around a bit earlier in the evening than it did yesterday! > > Most of us do not believe that more than one individual Common Nighthawk--the male--was definitively seen last evening, but it is certainly possible there might have been two birds. And there was certainly one male Lesser Nighthawk, but whether a second Lesser was there is also uncertain. > > So what will happen with these birds now?? Well, that's anyone's guess. Will there actually be a truly unprecedented nesting attempt by a pair of Common Nighthawks at a very atypical sort of site? Or will they discover the semi-folly of their ways and move on soon? What sort of interactions may be going on between the Common(s) and the Lesser(s)?? These sorts of questions need to be addressed with CAREFUL DOCUMENTATION of future encounters. Nighthawks observed at this site need to be CAREFULLY IDENTIFIED TO SPECIES, AND TO SEX (plumage-wise probably best by throat color). > > --Paul Lehman, San Diego > >
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