Results of the 2023 Nighthawk Monitoring Season
words by Edward Warden
Season two is in the books!
Last summer, Chicago Ornithological Society launched a new volunteer monitoring program to track, study, and conserve Chicago’s nighthawk population. With Common Nighthawks rapidly declining across their range, COS felt the time was right to take action and with the help of volunteers, pulled together a pilot monitoring program. Despite lots of uncertainty at first, it went off without a hitch and set a strong baseline for future monitoring efforts to build off of.
Riding on the wave of that successful first year, COS was back at this year for a full-blown monitoring season. With an even bigger corp of volunteers and far greater geographic scope, we’re excited to report that the 2023 season was a worthy and successful sequel to that auspicious first year. Analysis of the data is ongoing but here are some preliminary numbers thanks to the efforts of our volunteers.
Map indicating geographic extent of 2023 monitoring efforts.
2023 Season Monitoring by the Numbers:
31 volunteer monitors
118 locations monitored
Of the locations monitored, 42 had nighthawks
292 site visits we made over the monitoring period with checklists submitted via ebird
113 nighthawk detections overall
Common Nighthawk on a railing seen during monitoring, credit: Lisa Pool
We couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome this year. Not only were we able to collect data in areas that have rarely been searched, if ever, we now have data across years to begin showing us what exactly these birds need to survive. We can make a difference in the fight to conserve Common Nighthawks and are eager to share more with you as we learn what that looks like.
To learn more about The Chicago Nighthawk Project and how to support the team, check out our project page.
A huge thank you to the volunteers who donated their time, birding skills, and local knowledge of nighthawk strongholds this season:
Tim Balassie, Kelly Ballantyne, Stephanie Beilke, Ryan Chew, Lisa Collins, Emiliano DeBlas, Robyn Detterline, Rachel Flores, Stone Hansard, Pam Karlson, Tristan Kirvin, Mark Kolasa, Scott Judd, Katie Larson, Charlotte Long, Seth Marcus, Marion Miller, Kristin Murphy, Maureen Murphy, Grace Palacio, Lisa Pool, Philip Rudolf, Julie Sacco, Allison Spangenberg, John Sprovieri, Connor Sullivan, Stephanie Temple, Roselle Tenorio, Sophia Twitchell, and Edward Warden
And thanks to Claire Halpin, the first person to volunteer when this project nothing more than idea, who passed away earlier this summer.