K B Srinivas: First Nighthawk Sighting

For last couple of weeks could not spend anytime for birding. The weather had been not so co-operative during weekends and my work too :-)

So this weekend I was determined to make up for lost 2 weeks of birding. Even though it rained heavily for last few days I still decided to head towards woodruff park to find some of the summer migrants and resident birds. There are still lot of birds which I'm yet to see here.

I reached at around 7:30 in the morning and the first thing I noticed is the entire walking trail was filled with mud. There should have been lot of water around. And one of the tree was uprooted and was blocking the trail at one place.

Near the lake I saw there were lot of swallows and flycacthers. And on one of the tree I saw Purple Martin and Scissor-tailed flycatcher were fighting probably for a nice vantage point ;-) And at other place I saw Red-winged Blackbird chasing the swallows. In the lake all I could see was Mallards, a lone coot and lone Blue-winged Teal. Also near the lake were Snowy Egret, Great Egret and a Great Blue Heron.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Purple Martin

Snowy Egret

Blue-Winged Teal

Barn Swallow

I headed towards the Parula bridge to see if I can spot the Parula and the painted Bunting I had seen last time. I got a glimpse of the Parula and probably a female Painted Bunting. But the interesting sighting near the bridge was of Common Nighthawk. I have been reading ebird reports recently and most of the reports from here had sightings of Nighthawk. I did not have any luck with this bird till today and that changed in the morning when I saw a Nighthawk probably sleeping and basking in the sun :-) Sighting y first Nightjar in India took me almost 2-3 years and thankfully I did not have to wait that long to sight my first Nighthawk. Amazing bird. While I was taking pictures of this bird at one point of time it opened its wings both of them and stared swaying sideways as to indicate that it doesn't like being bothered. So I took it's message and left the scene. I was glad that I saw the bird still at the same spot when I started back from the walk.

Painted Bunting(Female)

Common Nighthawk

I saw few other common birds during the walk and returned home thinking about the swaying Nighthawk :-) Hope to see him again soon.

Red-Shouldered Hawk

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Carolina Wren

Carolina Chickadea

I had visited the woodruff park on May 16 but forgot update the blog. Below are some of the photos that I took during the walk on May 16.

Interesting sighting of the day was the beautiful Common Yellowthroat and Chestnut-sided Warbler.