ML59409511

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

2nd New Jersey record and 1st Somerset County record pending acceptance by NJBRC. Originally found and photographed this morning by Ben Barkley along the entrance trail near kiosk. Seen only on the ground personally, seen in flight earlier and after I left by others; short primary projection, with p10 obviously shorter than p9 which was easily visible when viewing the inside of left wing; significant buffy spotting on primaries; outer end of what was visible of the white-ish/buffy wing bar appeared to be just short of, or about level with, the end of tertials; overall a buffy, stocky looking Nighthawk. Aside from a few minor adjustments it only moved when a chipmunk nearly ran into it, which happened 3 times, and when it defecated, at which point it slowly shuffled in a nearly perfect 90 degree turn, took care of business, then slowly shuffled back to it's original position. Was still sitting in same spot when I left. Killer find by Ben!!! Update 5/27/17: I received word early this morning from Robert Blair that a Lesser Nighthawk was released at the Raptor Trust this past Sunday, May 21. It was originally found in Hillsborough Twp. on May 14. There were no apparent injuries; It was thin but not emaciated; it was tube fed, given insects, and was test flown and deemed ready for release after a week. I received pics, including a spread wing shot, from Robert and there is no doubt to the ID of the Raptor Trust bird. The Raptor Trust is roughly one mile from Lord Stirling Park. Update 5/27/17: The Lesser Nighthawk was actually found on Thursday, May 11, in a front yard on Steele Place in Hillsborough Twp. where it was picked up by St. Hubert's and brought to the Raptor Trust. Thanks again to Robert Blair for the original info from early this morning regarding this bird and this new info with a corrected date and more precise original location.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

1000

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1000 sec

Dimensions

3322 pixels x 2216 pixels

Original file size

5 MB