A Spine-Tingling Night
June 8th, 2013
Since as long as I've been a birder, I've longed to hear the call of
whip-poor-wills.
They're nocturnal birds, the most well-known of the nightjar family (also
colorfully called the goatsuckers.) By day, they sleep on the ground or
horizontally perched on tree limbs, and their dead-leaf camouflage make them
almost impossible to spot. As dusk sets in, they awake and sing their names
over and over.
I grew up with the sound of whip-poor-wills emanating from the woods behind
our house, joining the summer chorus of crickets and tree frogs. So naturally
Virginia was the first place I though to look for them. But I had no luck. I
went deep into those woods (so deep that I probably ended up in Pocahontas
State Park!), explored everywhere else I could think of from sunset to dusk,
and never heard a one. Whip-poor-wills are on the decline everywhere. In many
places they've disappeared, and unfortunately one of those places is my
parents' neighborhood.
So I finally decided to put a serious effort into finding them in Ottawa
instead, even though our population of whip-poor-wills is tiny and extremely
localized. The plus is, here we have a vibrant birder community that can tell
me exactly where to find them! So with the guidance of
NeilyWorld, I drove
to where Huntmar Drive crosses the train tracks, found a place to park, took a
flashlight and went exploring.
It was in the woods where it finally happened. I'd been listening for some
time to the evensong of veeries and wood thrushes when a distant
whip-poor-will joined in. I actually didn't register it at first, and by the
time I had it stopped. But ten minutes later another one started up, this one
startlingly loud and close!
I spent the next hour or so, to dusk and beyond, trying to actually
see
one so I could lifelist it, but with no luck. My eager approaches seemed to
scare them away, or at least scare them silent. But really, just hearing them
is what I was hoping for! And I now understand what Peterson's meant by
"tiresomely repeated." It's like they don't even stop to breathe. Although
there are the occasional lulls. One long lull was finally punctuated by the
spine-tingling sound of a pair of coyotes howling to each other--and then a
whip-poor-will immediately started up again, as if he considered that his cue!
I'm happy with Ottawa. It may not have wolves. It may not have lynxes. But so
long as it still has coyotes and whip-poor-wills, Ottawa is wild enough to
make me happy.
Mustang Sallie
June 9th, 2013 at 9:26 pm
I am so glad that your persistance finally paid off. Yes indeed, that was a GOOD day! Maybe someday you will catch a glimpse before they are gone for good.
Mike
June 9th, 2013 at 10:10 pm
Happily, significant chunks of land around here are protected, so there's at least reasonable hope that the wildlife will stay.