Goatsuckers

Common Nighthawk***

Chordeiles minor
In June 2003, this birder embarked on a Breeding Bird Atlas mission that ultimately proved fruitless: Find any evidence, however remote, that Common Nighthawks still reside in downtown Rochester. Each night, upon leaving work at the Democrat and Chronicle, he would listen intently for the distinctive “peenting” call that, in years past, had unfailingly punctuated the night skies of downtown Rochester. He drove the downtown streets, windows rolled down, stopping from time to time along the deserted streets to listen closely. None could be heard. On 6 June he prowled around Frontier Field after a Red Wing’s baseball game, hoping a nighthawk or two would be drawn to the insects swarming in the bright illumination still cast by the banks of lights. Not a one could be seen. Perhaps the hour was too late. He returned on 18 June at the start of a game, watching and listening from sunset until total darkness.Nothing. What a contrast from 1954 when bird columnist John Brown related: “If, walking up Main street in the gathering dusk of a warm summer’s evening, one were to accost a dozen citizens and inquire of them the origin of a recurrent, nasal, ‘peent’ sound in the evening sky, it is doubtful if even one or two would have the answer. “This is one of the common night noises that make up the vernal voice of the city. Thousands hear it and wonder about it no more than about the rumble of traffic or the shouting of newspaper boys on the corner. So commonplace is it that it barely penetrates the consciousness of city dwellers.” (BA, 8 July 1954) And again in 1973: “Virtually everyone who has ever walked the city’s streets or attended a Red Wing game . . . on a summer’s night has heard the rasping ‘peent’ calls of Nighthawks flying above the lights.” (BA, 6 September 1973) The newspaper boys are long gone, replaced by newspaper boxes. The nighthawks are gone, too, and for those who did take note and appreciate their presence, the void is as troubling as it is inexplicable.
Background
The loud, nasal “peent” call and erratic, almost bat-like flight make this nightjar a familiar bird to anyone “who spends time outdoors on warm summer evenings,” notes the profile of this species in The Birds of North America series. Its breeding range extends over most of Canada, virtually all of the U.S. and into Mexico and Central America. Though well known for nesting on flat, gravel roofs, especially in cities, it nests most often on open, cultivated fields, gravel beaches, rocky outcrops and burned-over woodlands. Recent data suggest a significant decline in this species, perhaps owing to increased predation, indiscriminate use of pesticides to control mosquitoes, and increased use of rubberized as opposed to gravel roofs in urban areas. Nighthawks will use gravel pads installed on the corners of these roofs. (BNA 213: 1-2, 14)
Local history
This night flyer with distinctive white wing patches adapted to nesting on the flat gravel roofs of the cities where there are bright, insect-attracting lights. Perhaps this is why Eaton (1910) listed it as a fairly common summer resident in Monroe County, but only an occasional resident in more rural Wayne County. (Eaton I: county charts)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated average counts of one to three birds, with a maximum count of 50, on dates ranging from 13 April to 28 September. Leo Tanghe, in his 1953 listing of breeding birds in the Rochester area, considered this an abundant nester, specifically citing downtown Rochester and Kodak Park. (GOS, May/August 1953)However, a long-term decline started at least forty years ago. (WBR, 3 July 1961) By 1972 only one to two might be found along the entire length of Main Street in Rochester (KB 22:169) and birders were speculating whether Urban Renewal had contributed to the alarming decline in this species.
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, fairly common summer resident, that, in some years, is common during migration.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a sporadic (formerly regular) rare (formerly common) spring and fall transient, and a former regular summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 13 April to 25 May, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 13 to 18 May. Subsequently, one on 7 April 1991 (Hamilton) at Springwater set a new record early date. (GOS, June 1991) During a large migration flight in late May 1974, Norm Henderson counted 30 resting in Island Cottage Woods while others were flying around the area. (BA, 12 June 1974) Spring maxima: 488 on 24 May 2004 (D. Tetlow) – 184 in the morning from Braddock Bay to Point Breeze, 304 in the afternoon from Durand Eastman to Point Breeze. (GOS, July 2004) This occurred when a “stationary front late in the month resulted in some great Common Nighthawk counts, but in the end, we still have few if any breeding birds left in the region and these totals stand as an anomaly,” according to notes to the May 2004 noteworthy records in the Goshawk. 300 on 30 May 1984 (Griffith) Long Pond. (LG, June 1984) 150 on 4 June 1984 (Symonds) west lakeshore. (LG, September 1984)
Summer/breeding status: By 1991, good numbers could be found only at Kodak Park and in the downtown area. (KB 41:263)Now all but extirpated as a local breeder, even in its last stronghold downtown. The two BBA projects clearly document the collapse of Common Nighthawk as a breeding species in our region. Indeed, during the first project, our region had one of the highest concentration of blocks with evidence of breeding. By the second project, probable breeding was documented in only a single block in Livingston County.

Statewide, it appears that the only remaining strongholds for this species are in Jefferson, Clinton and Broome counties.
Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of departure dates from 22 August to 16 October (1965, 1976) with a mid range, or “normal departure time” of 4 to 19 September. Subsequently, one on 21 October 1992 (Griffith) at Greece set a new record late date. (GOS, December 1992; KB 43:45) Note: This was apparently overlooked when one tallied 19 October 2001 (D. Tetlow) at Hogan Point was reported record late. (KB52:57)The 70-75 observed by Frank and Bob Dobson at Greece on 5 September 1992 was noteworthy “only because of their (nighthawks’) continued scarcity; in the past that number would have been ignored as simply one of many good reports of fall passage, with a peak of several hundred considered normal,” Bob Spahn noted. (GOS, November 1992)
Fall maxima: 100+ on 30 August 1978 (B. and E. Molyneaux) Rochester. (LG, September 1978) 346 in 45 minutes on 1 September 1988 (F. Dobson) at Greece. (KB 39:40) 125 in 15 minutes on 2 September 1993 (Hampson) Rochester. (GOS, November 1993) 100 on 5 September 1995 (D. and D. Traver) Brighton or Webster. (GOS, November 1995; LG, October 1995) 100 on 10 September 1974 (M. Carlson) at Rochester. (GOS, November 1974)

Chuck-will’s-widow

Antrostomus carolinensisformerly Caprimulgus carolinensis
On the evening of 19 May 1959, Henry Taylor, son of Joe Taylor, heard a bird calling in the family’s backyard on Allen’s Creek Road. He had heard that call before while listening to recordings of bird songs. When he told his dad he had just heard a Chuck-will’s-widow, his father was at first incredulous, Mary, Henry’s brother, related during an interview. However, that’s exactly what the bird turned out of be. In fact, when the family “turned up a hi-fi recording of the call on a Florida bird song record . . . The bird responded several times before a thunderstorm interrupted,” John Brown later related. (“Southern Bird Spotted in Area,” TU, 2 June 1961) It was our first record of this species, a larger relative of the Whip-poor-will that breeds as far north as Long Island, but is an extremely rare visitor here.
Background
More likely to be found in the open than the Whip-poor-will, this nightjar has expanded its range northward and to the west of its traditional breeding range in the Southeast U.S., now reaching the mid-Atlantic states. Occasionally recorded much farther north, most frequently in spring and early summer. It likes wooded areas, but prefers more open habitat than Whip-poor-will, apparently requiring forest gaps, pastures and scrub for foraging. It persists in areas undergoing suburban development, as long as enough forest cover remains. It is most often heard at dusk and dawn, but also at night when the moon is full or nearly so. It flies low over the ground in search of insects. When molting, it is sometimes seen on the ground under street lamps, foraging for insects and small frogs. Not listed as threatened or endangered, but population data is scanty. (BNA 499: 1, 3, 5, 12)
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a sporadic, very rare visitant.
OccurrenceOne 19 May 1959 at the Taylor residence in Brighton. (KB 9: 78)Two years later, on 1 June 1961, one flew into a mist net that Gerhard Leubner had set up near Manitou Beach. It escaped before Leubner could identify it. Later, Walt Listman flushed it and, through a combination of skill and luck, helped drive it into one of the mistnets late in the afternoon. After being banded, the bird “remained in this rather restricted area until at least July 2. . . The bird seemed partial to a low, horizontal limb of a pear tree and was often seen perched there,” Howard Miller reported. “When driven off, it frequently circled around and returned to the same perch.” (KB11: 149; WBR, 5 June 1961, 19 June 1961; “Southern Bird Spotted in Area,” TU, 2 June 1961)On 13 May 1978 Listman flushed another one as he walked through a break in the hedgerow north of the pear orchard. “It flew from the ground on my right and headed north by northwest to a small forest of alder saplings about 200 feet away on the edge of Rose’s Marsh. . . . The flight was very direct and very swift. We had flushed a Whip-poor-will not five minutes before and there wasn’t any resemblance except for shape.” The bird was flushed two more times. “It was quite a wary bird. I estimated that it flew up when we got about 30 feet away from it each time.” (LG, June 1978; KB 28:171) One giving a “brief serenade” on 13 June 1992 was reported by Laura and Neil Moon from their residence in Irondequoit. (KB 42:239; GOS September 1992) Accepted by NYSARC. (KB 45:76)

Eastern Whip-poor-will***

Antrostomus vociferousformerly Caprimulgus vociferous
Hair stylists meeting at the Manger Hotel in downtown Rochester got a closer look at one of these birds than they probably wanted to on 7 October 1959. A Whip-poor-will “sadly disrupted” the meeting when it invaded the premises and was finally captured in the Lilac Room, Howard Miller reported. (KB 9:162) “ For its brashness, ill-fortune or whatever, it must wear a band on its leg for the rest of its life,” Edson noted in his column. (WBR, 12 October 1959) Birders, on the other hand, would relish an encounter like that. An indication of the increasing scarcity of these birds was the intense interest aroused when one was flushed in Island Cottage Wood on 25 April 1994. It glided off about five feet, and perched in full view, two to three feet off the ground on a branch. Word quickly spread, and groups of birders soon converged on the spot, hoping it would stay in the area. It did – even as eager birders edged up 10 to 12 feet away. “It sits still, eyes drooping, no doubt convinced we have no idea it is there,” this birder later noted. He had to approach within four feet before the bird again flew off and showed its tail pattern. And even then it flew only a short distance before again settling. (Marcotte diary entry) Similarly, whip-poor-wills spotted in the woods near the Braddock Bay hawk lookout in April 1979 “were extremely cooperative, staying in the area all day,” John Brown reported. “With their protective coloration they were virtually impossible to find among the dead leaves as they sat motionless on the ground. Only when their exact location was pinpointed could observers pick them out with binoculars.” (BA, 25 April 1979)
Background
This “beautifully cryptic” nightjar is more likely to be heard than seen, and is one of the least studied of North American bird species, not only because it is hard to detect, but because of its nocturnal habits. Most activity is at dawn or dusk, but this species feeds throughout nights that are moonlit. In fact, the hatching of its chicks seems to be closely tied to periods of a full moon “so the parents can supply the extra energy demands of their rapidly growing brood.” It prefers nesting in dry deciduous or mixed forest with very little understory in the eastern United States, southern Canada and in southwestern United States south through Mexico into Central America. Most ornithologists agree that it occupies less of its available breeding range than previously. Habitat loss and tree succession may be to blame in some areas. Industrial pollution, pesticide use and the decline in giant silkworm moths, due in part to widespread use of “bug zappers,” are also implicated. (BNA 620: 1, 6, 15; Birds, 10 July 1994) Local history
Eaton (1914) wrote that this species was “local in distribution, preferring the wilder swamps, gullies and hillsides to the more settled districts” in New York state. Nonetheless, in the early evenings it could be seen “along the roadsides and about farmyards half a mile or more from its home in the wood, and its shrill cry is frequently heard from the ridge pole of the tent, from the peak of the barn, from the lane fence or from the roadside, as one journeys along in the dusk of evening.” He considered it a local summer resident in Monroe and Wayne counties, also occurring in Livingston, and a fairly common transient in Monroe. (Eaton II:164-165, I: county charts)R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, indicated average counts of one to two birds, on dates ranging from 30 April to 6 October. Its repetitive, namesake call “is well known … to all inhabitants of the State,” Eaton observed. That is no longer the case, certainly in our region. It “formerly nested in many spots both in and around Rochester, but it has been many years since a nest has been seen here,” Edson noted in 1944. (WBR, 1 May 1944) When Leo Tanghe analyzed sightings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951 through 1954, this species was reported 63 times within a 50-mile radius of Rochester. All but two of the sightings, however, appeared to be spring migrants. Bergen Swamp, however, remained a traditional stronghold; four were reported there by Listman and McKinney on 9 June 1953. (GOS, September/October 1953)Tanghe in 1953 listed both Bergen Swamp and Hale’s Woods in Webster as “probable” breeding locations. (GOS, May/August 1953)
Status The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a regular, uncommon spring transient; an occasional, very rare summer resident and an irregular, uncommon fall transient.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a casual very rare spring transient and a former irregular rare summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 10 April (1954) to 14 May, with a mid range, or “normal arrival time” of 27 April to 3 May. Subsequently one on 5 April 2005 (D. Tetlow) at Braddock Bay set a new record early date. (KB 55:271) In most years had departed by 23 May, with a late departure date of 5 June (1965). Now even migrants are hard to find, and in some years are not reported at all, though two encouraging recent tallies appear in the maxima below. Indeed, the eight reported on 5 May 2002 prompted Bill Symonds to suggest that “some nocturnal birding proves that Whip-poor-will is more abundant than we think.” (LG, Summer 2002)
Spring maxima: 3 on 23 April 2007 (D. Tetlow) Manitou. (LG, June 2007) 3 on 29 April 1959 (Starling) Island Cottage. (GNR) 6 on 1 May 2004 (D. Tetlow) at Manitou. (LG July/August 2004) 3 on 2 May 1980 (R. and S. Spahn) Bergen Swamp. (GOS, July 1980) 5 on 4 May 1999 (Brooks) at Manitou. (GNR) 8 on 5 May 2002 (D. Tetlow) at Manitou. (LG, Summer 2002) 3 on 5 June 1965 (Foley) Hamlin Beach SP. (GOS, September 1965)
Summer/breeding status: By the first Breeding Bird Atlas project in 1980-85, this species seemed much more restricted in its distribution throughout the state, Steven Sibley noted. “The uncertainty over the status of this species is exemplified along the Lake Ontario shore in Orleans and Monroe counties, where the Whip-poor-will was found at several locations during the mid-1970s, but was not located during the Atlas. It is unclear whether it was simply missed or no longer present.” (Andrle, p. 218)The same could be said of Bergen Swamp: Several were calling there in 1972 where it was considered “a regular breeder” (KB22: 129), and 10 tallied there on 10 June 1976 (M. Carlson et al) was a “fine count.” (KB26: 215) But the only confirmation of breeding during the first project came when recently fledged young were found near Naples. (KB32: 273). Evidence of possible or probable breeding was found in only 15 other blocks. By 1990, Bob Spahn noted, the species “appears essentially extirpated as a breeding bird” in our region. (GOS, July August 1990) And indeed the second BBA project confirmed the direst predictions: no evidence of breeding was reported in any of the blocks assigned to our region, and in only two blocks anywhere in western New York.

Indeed, the only remaining strongholds for this species in New York appear to be in the Catskills, eastern Long Island, the Lake Champlain region and the western Adirondacks. Ironically, Sibley noted, not even the reforestation occurring in New York seems to have helped this species. (Andrle, p. 218)
Fall: The Monroe County annotated list (1985) indicated a range of arrival dates from 20 August (1977) to 13 October with a late departure date of 23 October.

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