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This was a 41 mile raft trip down the Bruneau river. The only time we did not see western tanagers was when we were doing the class iv rapids (wasn't looking). There were no tanagers sighted at the Indian Hot Springs launch site. Normally one to five were seen as the males escorted us out of their territory. I estimated that they would stay with us for 100 yards. There are 17 100 yd segments to a mile and 700 in a 41 mile stretch. At one bird a segment that is 700 birds. I divided that in half because 700 sounded enormous however that works out to only 17 birds per mile which is extremely low given this pristine desert oasis' location. It seemed that once we passed the birds they would return to their nest, however if the same birds would then follow us (not likely) then the count would be down. 90 percent of the birds seen were males. I am also not positive on the type species of flycatcher I saw. Two of the goldens grasped talons in mid-air and tumbled once in the canyon.

Common Nighthawk Chordeiles minor