"Night is coming and day is done.
"Whippoorwill, Whippoorwill
"Has just begun."
Around a campfire, Girl Scouts everywhere sing this song amid an evening chorus of woodland night sounds. In June, the woods come alive at dusk with the sounds of crickets, katydids, frogs, toads and birds of the night — owls, nightjars and even species that might surprise you.
The whippoorwill is a member of the nightjar family. Rarely seen during the day, it sleeps on the floor of a deciduous or mixed forest. This brown-and-black bird rarely is seen as it quietly blends in with the leaves. But at night, the whippoorwill is wide awake. At dusk, they begin to call to establish territory and communicate with family members, as they forage for night-flying insects. Especially, when the moon is bright, the calls continue well into the night.
Chuck-will's-widows are close cousins of the whippoorwill and share this behavior. They also sing their name on summer evenings beginning with a sharp "chuck" that you might miss unless you listen closely. The chuck-will's-widow is a Southern bird, and the whippoorwill is primarily a bird of the Northeast and Midwest. But their breeding ranges overlap in western North Carolina.
Fragmentation of woodland habitat threatens both species in our area. In competition for limited habitat, the larger chuck-will's-widows may be pushing their smaller cousins farther north. Although local surveys in 2008 and 2009 turned up few of these birds, they can still be heard in our more rural communities.
The common nighthawk is also a nightjar and more easily found. It has been able to adapt to people and regularly nests on flat rooftops in cities and towns. If you go to a Dash game or to Gallery Hop on Trade Street, you might hear their nasal "peeet" above you or even see them snatching insects in flight.
Owls are the other main night talkers, of course. Although their courtships took place earlier in the year, you still can hear pairs communicating as they hunt. Our "hoot" owls are the great horned and the barred, with the latter usually asking, "Who, who, who cooks for you?" Barred owls are common to our area. Listen for them if you are near Bethabara, Miller Park or Tanglewood on a summer evening. Screech owls also live in the area, but they whinny rather than hoot.
Last summer, Terry Milton from the Dobson area contacted me about nighttime whistling that seemed to go on for hours. At first, I was as mystified as Terry. It wasn't an owl, a nightjar or even a hawk, but what? To me, the only thing Terry's recording remotely sounded like was a wood duck. With a little research, I discovered that wood ducks do call at night. Undoubtedly, that is what it was. Now, that was a surprising night bird.
What is pleasant at first can become irritating when it persists late at night. Other readers have contacted me about being kept awake by the extensive vocal repertoire of a mockingbird. This usually is the behavior of a courting male, so it's more likely to occur earlier in the spring.
Remember the "whippoorwill song?" That call would be music to my ears. But I also recall the tale of a British friend who loved scouting and the song. Camping in Florida, she was excited to hear for the first time the tune of a chuck-will's-widow. After a couple of hours and no sleep, she swore she would never sing that song again.
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