Whip-poor-will sighting

[GeorgeShu]

I was working on my sprayer prepping for food plots. Pulled into the shade along an old hedge row to work on it.
Heard rustling is the leaves right behind me following by wings flapping. Turned around to see a bird take off, fly about 15 feet and land on a limb. Another bird rustled around but I could not see that one. They kinds chirped back and forth a few times.
the one I saw I believe was a whip-poor-will.
Never have seen one but have heard them many times over the years. One more for the life list!

 

[Nicodemus]

Was it a whippoorwill or a chuck wills widow? Either one, congrats on seeing one.

 

[GeorgeShu]

Not really sure, Nick, could be either I suppose. This was in Screven County and I have always called them whippers but it could be the Chucks widow based on distributions.The call I typically hear would be “tsk whippoorwill, whippoorwil, whippoorwil.....”

 

[Para Bellum]

Was it a whippoorwill or a chuck wills widow? Either one, congrats on seeing one.

Very interesting. I can't hardly tell the two songs apart Nic. Never seen either to my knowledge. They sure do make me sleep good though.

 

[lagrangedave]

Was it a big bird?

 

[GeorgeShu]

Got another look at them this morning. I am going with Chuck-Wills-Widow.
Good sized bird, larger than a pigeon. Brownish overall with a tan strip around neck area. They were in the same place at about the same time. I walked around the truck to get something out of the passenger side rear area when they both fluttered away. One flew to the same limb as on saturday where I got a better view. Interesting creatures.

 

[Danuwoa]

Our place has got a healthy and vocal population of them and I love hearing them but I never see them.

 

[Resica]

I see tons of them in the early morning darkness driving to turkey hunt in the mountains. They're laying on the gravel roads. Whippoorwills that is.

 

[35 Whelen]

Been years since I heard one. Used to hear them at my grandmother's farm in Pennsylvania when I was a kid.

 

[Redbow]

I hear them every morning calling in the Croatan National Forest here. I haven't seen one in a very long time..

 

[Resica]

They keep us awake at night at camp with the windows open. It's a nice problem to have. Them, rattlesnakes and ravens, wilderness in our mountains. Love it!!!

 

[lagrangedave]

My grandmother would lay on the floor and roll over three times when she heard the first one every spring. She was a primative Baptist and never set foot in a church. Her hair was never cut in her 94 years. She was Dutch and taught me a lot about white magic. She use to read the Bible in front of the fire at night then take her hair out of the bun and brush it 100 times. Her hair was longer than she was tall.