Nighthawk and Supermoon
Nighthawk and Supermoon (photo A.Shock)
This grainy photo was taken last Sunday in New Mexico. If you look closely, you can see a bird-shaped smudge soaring past the top edge of the moon. It’s a Common Nighthawk, hawking insects in the light of the full moon. The ID isn’t made on the strength of the shape of the shadow, but on something the photo doesn’t show: the bird’s distinctive “peent” call, which we’d been hearing as we stood admiring the enormous so-called “supermoon.” How excellent to later discover the accidental capture of the bird flying between us and the bright moon’s disk!