Don,
My family and I noticed the same thing this evening when we stopped to look at
the Nighthawks while passing through the area at about 9:30. We had a high
count of 10 at one time in the sky. Bats were nipping at the tails of the
Nighthawks on a few occasions, giving chase. My interest piqued, I decided to
do some research online and came up with the below two articles. Apparently
both creatures have very similar preferences for specific families of insects,
so it is likely a competitive thing:
http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?issueID=19&articleID=674
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0031%28199007%29124%3A1%3C73%3APSBBBB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage
Take Care,
Jay Keller,
Arlington
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Sweig <skybirds.d@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Aug 18, 2007 9:57 PM
To: va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Va-bird] Lots of Nighthawks
There were at least 20, and probably more, nighthawks at the tower buildings
at Tysons Corner tonight. They came in quite low as the lights first came on
but soon migrated higher up. They were actively feeding. There were also
several bats, some of which were chasing the nighthawks again. Maybe it will
be a good week.
--
Donald Sweig
Falls Church, Va.
