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Nature Talks author Cheryl Kimball has seen this hawk sitting in a tree in her horses’ paddock several mornings over the past few weeks.

Nature Talks author Cheryl Kimball has seen this hawk sitting in a tree in her horses’ paddock several mornings over the past few weeks.

MY DOMESTIC DUCK molts in August. In fact, there are three places around the barnyard where he must have groomed and plucked out old feathers; each spot looks like it is where 7-year-old Trois finally met his demise. But thankfully no, he is resting in his nighttime stall as I write this — minus lots of feathers.

Trois’ molt turns him from a lovely light brown to a luxurious dark brown. It looks like we have a different duck. Trois can fly, although not far or with much lift, which I think is what has kept him safe for over seven years. But after molting, he can’t fly for a few weeks; he sticks very close to home spending much time in his stall whose door is always open during the day.

I kept seeing posts on Facebook about something I had never heard about or seen — blue jays molting in August. When I Googled “blue jays molting” a site called The Zen Birdfeeder popped up with an article titled “If the Blue Jays are Bald, It Must Be August.” So clearly this is a thing. Unlike Trois, who only loses his body feathers, the poor blue jays’ annual complete molt means they often lose head and neck feathers. This magnificent-looking bird (and I’m pretty sure any blue jay would tell you they were magnificent-looking if they could) looks pretty non-magnificent for a couple of weeks. Ditto for northern cardinals, according to The Zen Birdfeeder.

Several mornings recently when I stepped out of the porch to head to the barn, I found a hawk sitting in our sole remaining pear tree (which is a pitiful specimen since the horses have access to it and have debarked it and our resident porcupines climb it most nights in the late spring and denude the branches). The local bluebird flock spends a lot of time sitting on the paddock fences, on top of the barn and in that pear tree. I hate to think the hawk is snacking on the beloved bluebirds but we all have to eat I guess. I don’t know what kind of hawk it is — I am guessing a Cooper’s from the size, the white bands on the tail and the “rusty underparts.”

One evening a couple of weeks ago I stepped out of the porch to head to the barn (having horses to feed is good for bird watching!) and saw several large birds swooping around the darkening sky over the paddocks. More joined them until there were around 40 common nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) in the aerial display. I have seen this only once before on our farm, around five years ago. (If you Google “nighthawks” be sure to add “bird” or you will learn a lot about Edward Hopper’s fabulous diner painting.)

According to Cornell’s All About Birds, the common nighthawk has “one of the longest migration routes of all North American birds.” They migrate in large flocks of potentially hundreds of birds and winter in southern South America. The birds I saw were likely starting to gather for migration.

Nighthawks are in the same family as eastern whip-poor-wills; their main body very much resembles a whip-poor-will. A white stripe across each wing makes them easily identified while flying. According to an interesting article in the Berkshire Eagle, nighthawks were barely seen in places where people are until after the Industrial Revolution when flat-topped gravelly factory roofs attracted them and American killdeer as nesting sites. Changing rooftops and increased use of pesticides were named in the article as key factors in the nighthawk’s population decline.

I have finally downloaded the Merlin app (from the Cornell Lab) on both my (Android) phone and my iPad. I have just started using it and I can see what all the excitement is about! The app is very cool. When you call it up you can start walking through an identification process or you can click on “Get Photo ID” or “Sound ID.”

While sitting in the backyard the other day watching our friend the catbird, listening to him meow and meowing back to him, I decided to click on Merlin’s sound ID just for fun. Almost immediately “Gray Catbird” popped up. How cool is that!

When you click on the Photo ID, it asks you to either take a photo of the bird or choose a photo from your library. I decided just now to try the hawk I saw in the pear tree. I clicked the Merlin Photo ID button. It asks me if I want to take a picture of the bird now or upload an existing picture. I chose existing picture and pushed the button to load it into Merlin from my iPad. Once the photo is uploaded, you get a square box and Merlin asks you to zoom up the photo so the bird fills the box. I did. You can confirm where and when you took the photo, but I just clicked on “Identify.”

Merlin says my hawk (pictured) is a red-shouldered hawk. Do you agree or disagree?

Cheryl Kimball is a freelance writer who lives north of Rochester. Email her at naturetalksck@gmail.com.

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