Most avid birdwatchers will always remember hearing the mysterious chant of the whip-poor-will’s summer evening song. It may seem to go on forever, as long as several hundred times, making it very easy to imitate the exact verbal sequence of sound. The intent is unusually vociferous because the repetitious message is first driven by seeking a mate and then by territorial obsessiveness.
This whip-poor-will is more often heard than seen, sleeping by day, camouflaged upon a color emulating horizontal low-lying tree branches. It does not wake up until twilight, but then will flutter up into the air along the edge of woodland clearings to catch bugs. It nests on the ground and lays two eggs, cleverly inconspicuous on layers of deciduous leaves. If it feels the nest gas been discovered, like the ground nesting woodcock it will fly a short way with the eggs between its legs to a more secret location.
After an incubation of about 21 days, the time of hatching is closely tied to the lunar cycle. It will amazingly coincide, happening just a few days before a full moon, as illustrated. This reflects a celestial orchestration with mortal survival on Earth, so parents will be able to catch enough bugs for their new offspring. Bugs are magnetically attracted and activated by the moon’s light, just like a bright streetlight on a dark night.
Unfortunately, reproduction population is dwindling everywhere. Like all its species cousins including the night hawk, night jar, and chuck-will-widow, the whip-poor-will population has decreased annually by at least six percent for the past 50 years This decline is attributed to a vital loss of insects, moths, or beetles, caused by human’s consumption of the pitch pine and scrub oak habitat.
Research to reverse the recent Audubon classification of “species of national concern” is underway at three nearby locations of Massachusetts Wildlife Management areas: Cape Cod, Bolton Flats, and Montague Plains. After netting and banding, a tiny microchip is attached to GPS track migratory routes and final destinations. This eventually showed a deviation from other bird migration along the traditional Atlantic Flyway. The whip-poor-will was somehow able to reach Central America by a strictly overland route. This is critical for survival during stopovers to rest; however, crucial questions and solutions are still pending and unanswered.
The whip-poor-will’s ritualistic and mystical country echo every evening has left a lasting impression in the human mind, especially young children just before bedtime. It has inspired paintings by James Audubon, poetry by Robert Frost, and homespun country humor by Mark Twain.
The Native American symbolic interpretations of birdcalls are meaningful. The reverberating wail of a loon across a lake forecasted rain. To the elderly, the hoot of an owl could seem to call out a person’s name when it was time for them to go. And across a peaceful summer setting at twilight, they heard the whip-poor-will as a soul snatcher, rising up from the Earth to rescue a dying human spirit before nightfall.
By George B. Emmons
