ML637156669

Dettagli dell'osservazione

1 Details April 9th we arrived at this pond near dusk and were scanning through a swallow swarm when a typical looking nightjar came flying towards us low over the water . The sun had already set but Lisa Combs managed several photos just to document what was thought to be an early Common Nighthawk. The bird was close and darting back and forth so this was a heroic effort. Others were immediately notified but no further thought was given to this presumed CONI. April 13th we came upon presumably the same bird roosting in the parking lot adjacent to the pond we originally found the bird on April 9th. The bird flew almost from under my car and landed in the gravel about 20 feet in front of us. Photos were attempted but as fate would have it, the bird flew about 50 feet to our right. Thinking this was a great opportunity to get photos of a resting CONI, I repositioned the car about 30 feet away with the sun behind us for definitive photos. We carefully backed away from the bird after getting our fill of photos and drove away with other cars parked in the lot. When we left, the bird remained hidden in broad daylight camouflaged in the gravel! Unfortunately, no immediate mention on our part was made to others to come look for this unexpected Jewel! If a dead Lesser Nighthawk had not been found in western Kentucky that had presumably been struck by a vehicle elsewhere and fallen off its grill, we may never have scrutinized our photos and have others look at them to change the birds identification to Kentucky's and the Midwest's first Lesser Nighthawk! This in-flight photo was the only really helpful one from April 9th. This was obviously a Nighthawk and given its white wing patches, other Nightjars expected in the US were ruled out.. Research showed that P10 is much longer in the Lesser versus the Common Nighthawk making the in-flight wing tips look more rounded as seen in this photo. A further search by myself and others failed to find another Nighthawk in the area later that week, but there is a large,adjacent, but inaccessible fenced-in area for it to roost in. The April 13th ebird list shows the detailed roosting photos with a close-up annotated diagram of its wing added by Ronan O'Carra numbering the position of the primary feather tips. The white patch pattern and position is consistent with the LENI as is the greater width of each primary feather. The bird did not vocalize either day. Media