Whip-poor-will | The Music of Nature

Gentle Wills

by Lang Elliott · March 16, 2011 · 12 Comments

I’ve told this story time and again. I search through my collection of soundscape recordings that feature particular species and I am disappointed to find that most of the time I got too close, the recordings overpowering the average listener who prefers gentle soundscapes over striking closeups.

Such is the case with the Whip-poor-will. I’ve got tons of recordings but nearly all of them are up close. Nice, for sure, but too loud to listen to for long periods. I was beginning to think I didn’t have any really excellent immersive soundscape recordings of Whip-poor-wills, but then I stumbled across the following one that I made in mid-April of 1995 in Kentucky, shortly after the Whip-poor-wills had returned from migration. Take a listen . . . there are lots of birds involved, some perhaps just passing through:

Numerous Whip-poor-wills singing at night in hardwood forest surrounding a small marsh. 15 April 1995, Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky. Recorded by Lang Elliott.

Do you like this recording? It’s busy with Whip-poor-will’s but they are all at a distance and their songs are resonant, well-integrated into their environment. “Gentle Wills,” I have decided to call them because they are so darned easy on the ears! Listen also for the peeping of Spring Peepers, the chirps of Spring Field Crickets, the buzzy, high-pitched song of a Cone-headed Katydid, and water sounds from the marsh.

Whip-poor-will Song and “gur-gur” Calls

by Wil Hershberger · May 7, 2010 · 5 Comments

[singlepic id=118 w=350 float=left]Once I found the Whip-poor-will that was singing from an accessible location (see Whip-poor-will Pwips & Mystery Bird Sound), I went back several times to capture additional recordings of this wonderful song.

Little did I know what was in store for me. After setting up the mics and stringing the cable back to the truck, the Whip-poor-will started to sing before the recorder was started. Very shortly after initiating recording, the Whip-poor-will flew in closer and began to sing. At the same instant that he stopped singing a new call was heard. This call was lower in pitch and much quieter that the song. A rapidly repeated series of “gur-gur-gur-gur…” calls that seemed to drop slowly in pitch as the bird called. During this “gurring” there was the sound of the bird moving around slightly—was mating taking place during these calls? Was this “gurring” coming from the male or the female? There was no way to tell from my concealment.

It appears that there is little known about the vocal and breeding behavior of this species. What a wonderful opportunity for an industrious student of nature to add to our knowledge of these marvelous birds.

Here is the recording of the Whip-poor-will once he had flown in closer, from the quiet pwit notes, through the song and then the long series of gur calls:

Whip-poor-will song followed by a long series of gur-gur calls. Berkeley County, WV. May 4, 2010. ©Wil Hershberger.

Interestingly, the Chuck-will’s-widow has a similar vocalization. Here is a recording that Lang Elliott captured in the Wichita Mountains NWR in Oklahoma in 2000 on May 5 at about 3am. Notice how similar these aug-aug calls are to the gur-gur calls of the Whip-poor-will.

Chuck-will’s-widow song and aug-aug calls. Recorded in the Wichita Mountains NWR, Oklahoma. May 5, 2000 at 3am. ©Lang Elliott.

Whip-poor-will Pwips & Mystery Bird Sound

by Wil Hershberger · April 25, 2010 · 8 Comments

I was stumbling around in the dark an hour before sunrise, setting up the SASS and stringing the mic cable back to the blind (my truck in this case)—it was 5AM.

I got the recorder up and running, set a pleasing level that I assumed would keep close-by birds from distorting once they woke up.

All was quiet, I waited for the first sounds. Shortly, Barred Owls called in the distance, then Whip-poor-wills started farther away and moved closer. Once they land they make clucking sounds, pwip . . . pwip . . . pwip, before they sing. I had never heard this before. In the recording below, you can hear five pwips before he starts to sing.

After the sun was coming up and the Whip-poor-wills had ceased singing, American crows, Eastern Tufted Titmice, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Eastern Towhees were ramping up. All of the sudden something strange started making soft piping notes near the mics. I couldn’t imagine what could be out there, in the thicket beyond the SASS, that was making these wild sounds—almost tropical sounding. There are hints that it could be a Blue Jay as there are several squeaky sounds that are typical for Blue Jays. I couldn’t see this songster, it was hidden from view by the distance and leafing out vegetation.

What do you think? (Listen carefully—we’re referring to the resonant, musical purps or pops that occur here and there in the recording).