Date: 8/15/26 7:37 am From: Michael M. Melius via groups.io <pingothenbingo...> Subject: [sd-birds] Nighthawks moving
On the afternoon of the 13th I was driving east of Hermosa and looked up to see nighthawks swirling over the Battle Creek valley. There were over 40, most fairly high up. It was a cloudy, calm day, and as I drove over the divide into Spring Creek valley, I found more flocks. I even went back up Spring Creek road to get closer to a flock of about 80 CONI in an area where I've seen flocks in past years. (Evans Ranch--but maybe I see them there just because it's an area where the road comes close to the creek?)
I decided to spend a little time trying to track the flocks to see if there was any direction to their movement. I'm pretty confident I re-located a flock of about 60 birds that had continued east down the valley about 3 miles. Last I saw they were headed more northeast, out of the valley. I continued east all the way to the Cheyenne River, but found only a few CONI beyond Folsom. I counted over 200 in total. A swirling flock is impossible to count, but then suddenly they'll all head in one direction for a while and they're easy to count.
This has become an annual August event, nighthawks gathering over Spring Creek valley. I wonder if this can be observed in other river valleys in the state.
Small flocks of Lark Buntings were also encountered. At ground level, of course.
