Laura Erickson's For the Birds

Common Nighthawks were once an everyday summer presence in big cities and towns, nesting on rooftops and making their “peent” calls at dusk. This species is near the very top of my list of favorite birds–I love watching them fly and roost, I specialized on them when I was a bird rehabilitator, I studied their digestion for of my ill-fated Ph.D. program (I was going to be the first person to get a Ph.D. in Avian Physiology at the U. of Minnesota with out sacrificing a single bird), my love was fanned by several of the individuals I got to know personally as I rehabbed them, and I deeply loved Fred, the nighthawk I was licensed to keep as an education bird.