Interesting Common Nighthawk late summer behavior

Aug 29, 2013 post at the Toledo Naturalists message board. I learned something new.

Common Nighthawks migrate south through the Toledo area primarily from mid-August to mid-September. When I have attended Saturday night football games at UT in early September, I've seen nighthawks circling at the top of the light dome. Sometimes, nighthawks can be seen in the light dome of a large shopping complex.

But I was unaware of the flying ant hatch in late summer that seems to coincide with the biggest movement of nighthawks through the Toledo area.

GL:

On Monday, August 26th there were about 150 Common Nighthawks flying over the west Toledo neighborhood near Close Park. The next evening, there was a massive flying ant hatch and even more nighthawks were present, taking advantage of the easy food source - about 200.

Comment by MA:

My observations over the years is that there clearly is a correlation between peak numbers of southbound nighthawk through the Toledo area and the hatch of flying ants. As best I can tell, the hatch of these ants is normally just a 1-2 day event, so somehow the nighthawks seem to have the timing figured out.

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