Nighthawks and More

Good afternoon folks. 
DesertDale finally did it.  He got this  "nighthawk" photo , in flight.  He flit so good about it, he took me to lunch in Austin, after we picked up the mail.

  The Common Nighthawk can be seen flying  in rural or urban areas. Its white wing patches and erratic flight makes you think it might be a bat. In some areas as they are sometimes called a "bull bat."

They live in a variety of open places such as  shrub-steppe, grassland, and agricultural fields. They also are found in  cities, clear-cuts, and burns, as long as there are  enough flying insects and open gravel surfaces for nesting.

They do their nesting on open ground along the river or other gravelly stretches.  They also will make their nest on gravel roof tops, in cities.  They lay two eggs directly on sand or gravel with no nest. The female does most of the incubation.  It takes  18 to 20 days for them to hatch. Once the eggs  have hatched  both parents feeds . When the chicks are a month old, they are on their own.

They travel to South America for the winter.

DesertDale took extra care with these photos, so enjoy them.

I had a chili-dog for lunch and it was no-good, could not eat it all.  They "dog" was OK but the chili was 4-F.

The burros came by to visit us last night.  They even knot over DesertDale's KTM.  No damage done.  This photo of the burros was taken last year here at Spencer Hot Springs.  I was not up at 1:30 when they came by.

 Back to our site at Spencer's Hot Springs.

Kitfoxgal