Common Nighthawks, Bats...and Wild Turkeys on the Trail!

...I just need to sneak in a quick little post. Tonight, Rick and I took a walk at dusk on the trail. It was getting late, so we knew we wouldn't be able to get in much birding, but the rain had cleared and the breeze was nice, so over went at 7:40 p.m. I wanted to show Rick the Indigo Buntings. Since they always hang out in the same place and are VERY vocal, I knew it wouldn't be hard to find one. We were lucky and saw a brilliant blue Indigo Bunting within seconds of hearing him sing...and sing...and sing! As I was getting my last glimpse of him, Rick exclaimed, "Wild Turkeys on the trail!" I turned just in time to see five of them cross over and work their way into the undergrowth of the heavily wooded hillside. I haven't seen a turkey on the trail in over nine years, so what a surprise. We walked up to where they had crossed, but they had already slipped deep into cover and were out of sight.  

The sun was setting quickly and light fades fast in the understory, but with darkness comes...bats! It was so fun looking up and watching them zip and flutter around. We assumed they were Little Brown Bats because Little Browns are common in our area and these bats were pretty small (and very cute). A huge colony of them must be sleeping in the abandoned Peter's Cartridge Factory during the day, because there was an endless stream of them filtering through the corridor just under the treetops at dusk. They were very cute nabbing insects on the wing and squeaking now and then. Higher in the sky, visible straight up between the branches of the trees, were Common Nighthawks. In the binocs I could see the white bars on their wings, but their form is so distinctive we knew what they were right away. I noticed the bats at 8:45 and the Common Nighthawks shortly after. By the time we made it back to the car it was 9:10. I wonder if you wait at the Cartridge Factory for the "witching hour" if you can see a mass exodus of them skitter out of the powder factory? 

Other birds found/heard along the way: 2 Swainson's Thrushes, 3 Wood Thrushes, 1 Veery, 1 Ovenbird, 1 VERY beautiful Prothonotary Warbler, heard 3 Black and White Warblers, 1 Northern Parula, and 1 Tennesse Warbler, saw many Robins, several Northern Cardinals, four American Goldfinches, many Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, 2 Downy Woodpeckers, 1 Pileated Woodpecker, numerous Tree Swallows, 1 Tufted Titmouse, heard Starling babies in a nesting cavity and 3 Red-eyed Vireos...also heard a Black-billed Cuckoo and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and 3 or 4 mystery birds with unfamiliar calls and songs (I'm still working hard at learning all the songs of our neotropical migrants).