Just past 1:00pm this afternoon, I was walking along the edge of an
extend piece of our yard that looks down into a shallow wooded, bubbling
stream gully ... casually paying attention to all those voices that
inevitably turn out to be Redstarts. A bird of larger wing flew out of
the thin understory of tall maples and oaks on the opposite side of the
gully, triggered the voice in my head who said "Oh, there's our
Sharp-shinned. But just as instantly, as the bird flew diagonally
across in front of me, below my eye level so I could see it well from
above, it was clear from that vantage that it was no Sharpy but a
graceful, pointy-winged denizen with brilliant white wing-patches
flashing in the shade, long-tailed, neckless Common Nighthawk .......
glide, three deep strokes, glide, aerobatic turn to the right, disappear
behind an Oak .......
Ian
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