Chuck-will's-widow recording, Katama, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

This is the first recorded documentation in the history of Martha's Vineyard of a Chuck-will's-widow being present on the island and singing at night. I first heard this bird singing near my Katama home in the middle of May. I was bewildered by the singing of a night bird that I have never heard before. My first thought was that it was an impaired or immature Whippoorwill. When I heard it again around 2 AM in the morning of June 5th, I thought it would be a good idea to record this singing bird so I could get someone to help me identify it. This bird sang for over ten minutes before flying to a distant tree and continuing with its singing. I have contacted Becky Harris of Mass Audubon on Cape Cod of this bird's unusual presence, as well as other local, regional and national bird associations. As you listen to this abbreviated recording, you will hear the Chuck-will's-widow's song become progressively louder. That is because, in the 2 AM cloud-covered dark of night, I slowly walked in my bathrobe and slippers across the dew-covered grass toward the singing Chuck-will's-widow. I recorded over ten minutes of this singing Lothario. Audubon.org states: this species "...is seldom observed beyond the limits of the Choctaw Nation in the State of Mississippi, or the Carolinas, on the shores of the Atlantic, and may with propriety be looked upon as the southern species of the United States. Louisiana, Florida, the lower portions of Alabama and Georgia, are the parts in which it most abounds; and there it makes its appearance early in spring, coming over from Mexico..." The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says: "Listen at dusk and at night for the rolling, seemingly endless call of the Chuck-will's-widow. If you are lucky and have a keen eye, by day they can be found resting motionless on the ground or on a horizontal branch. This is the largest nightjar in North America, but their dappled brown plumage makes them blend in perfectly to dry woodlands of the Southeast."

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