Nighthawks provide gift of hope
WAUWATOSA - It started as a trickle of three common nighthawks zig-zagging through the evening sky.
Then Mother Nature opened the valve.
Over the next hour it built into a feathered tsunami as more than 1,000 of the sleek, acrobatic birds bobbed and weaved over and through Wauwatosa.
They graced the airspace above the Menomonee River Parkway, the expansive greens and fairways of Blue Mound Golf and Country Club and even the asphalt, steel and concrete of Mayfair Mall.
The day was Monday, the time was between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m.
It was still technically summer, but the appearance of the nighthawks was a portent of fall – the leading edge of the migration had arrived.
The black, beige and white birds, which require insects for food and travel to Central and South America for winter, were right on time.
And since their numbers have been declining, and since 2020 has been so out-of-the-ordinary in the human world, the sight of so many nighthawks struck me like a sweet, hopeful tonic.
Since I first saw a nighthawk 50 years ago on a late August evening in Racine County, I have awaited the fall flight of the graceful birds.
With oval white patches on their feathers, long-pointed wings and an erratic flight pattern, nighthawks are among the easiest birds to learn and identify.
They are also among the easiest to admire. The birds are in a class called aerial insectivores, meaning they feed on the wing. Their diet includes mosquitoes and flying ants.
And they are among our long-distance migrants, some flying 4,000 miles to winter in Argentina.
The flock I observed in Wauwatosa was likely from northern Wisconsin or Canada, said Bill Volkert, a master birder and naturalist.
Taking advantage of what must have been a substantial insect hatch, they were using this specific spot in southeastern Wisconsin as a “fly through” restaurant.
At the southeastern corner of Mayfair Road and Burleigh Avenue, a torrent of at least 200 nighthawks swirled in a tight circle over a low acre of high grass.
Turning east from there to the riparian corridor of the Menomonee River and uphill to the campus of Mount Mary University, hundreds more nighthawks put on an awe-inspiring, dizzying display.
In 50 years, it was the most nighthawks I’d ever seen in one flight.
Nighthawk sightings have been good recently in the Upper Midwest, said Ryan Brady, biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Natural Heritage Conservation Program.
Brady said in the last week he had reports of more than 600 in Brown County, more than 300 in Milwaukee County and, just across the state line, more than 27,000 in Duluth, Minnesota, on Monday alone.
The nighthawk migration should peak this week, Brady said.
The birds can create an emotional reaction among birders.
Jerry DeBoer of Racine remembers Aug. 27, 1985 like it was yesterday. He saw a movement of at least 18,000 nighthawks that day along the Lake Michigan shore at Wind Point. The experience left him “shaking in the knees,” DeBoer said.
“I literally had to sit down,” DeBoer said. “The sky was thick with nighthawks to the south, east and north with steady movement coming over the bank from the west and northwest. To this day, it is one of the most memorable events of my life.”
Sadly, DeBoer said he’s been witness to a decline of nighthawks in recent decades, likely due to multiple factors including loss of nesting habitat and declines in insect populations.
In 2018 a conference was held in Pewaukee titled “S.O.S. for Our Flying Bug Eaters: Addressing Declines in Chimney Swifts, Nighthawks, Bats and other Aerial Insectivores.”
The U.S. population of nighthawks has declined by about 2% per year between 1966 and 2014, amounting to a cumulative decline of 61%, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.
Canadian populations experienced declines of more than 4%, and recent data suggest the species’ numbers may have dropped more than half in Canada since the mid-1960s.
Hard numbers are difficult to come by because the common nighthawk’s cryptic colors and nearly nocturnal habits make them difficult to count during standardized surveys, according to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.
Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 16 million, with 88% breeding in the U.S., 5% in Canada, and 4% spending some part of the year in Mexico.
The 2014 State of the Birds Report lists the nighthawk as a “common bird in steep decline.”
As the human experience is disrupted by a pandemic and social upheaval, the sight of so many hundreds of nighthawks flitting through the Wisconsin sky on Monday was especially uplifting for me.
The flock diminished after sunset; most seemed to head toward the southwest horizon. The unexpectedly large number of nighthawks had left me energized and hopeful.
Brady said my reaction was a microcosm of the benefits birding has been bringing to millions of Americans in 2020.
“In this completely twisted year, people are turning to birding and boosting their emotional health,” Brady said.
The fall migrations are underway. Keep your eyes open and, if you are able, get outdoors and look for the feathered travelers.
This year they may gift you with even more than their beauty.