Nighthawks: Notre Dame Cemetery, Worcester (8/26)

On Saturday night (8/26) my Dad and I went over to Notre Dame Cemetery to check for migrating Nighthawks. We got over there around 6:30 and started scanning the skies for the birds. Soon after we arrived, we ran into a birding friend, Fran McMenemy. Fran had gotten to the cemetery earlier than us but hadn't seen a bird yet. As we talked, I watched a few Chimney Swifts hunting above us. When it got to be 7:15 or so and we still hadn't seen a Nighthawk, Fran decided to head over to Rt. 56 to see if the situation was any better over there. But we decided to stay a bit longer.

And we were rewarded for our patience. Around 7:30 we spotted our first Nighthawk... then another... and another. All the birds seems to be heading south and only strayed from this path to catch the random bug. In total we counted 18. It wasn't spectacular but it was the best that I've seen this year.

But, the real show was on Wednesday. My parents went back to the cemetery and had a great night. They counted over 600 birds. And this experience was mirrored at other sites in Central Massachusetts. You can read some of the reports at Rick Quimby's site.