Whip-poor-will in Guelph near Costco

[adonlan]

It was about 3 am May 14/17 when this guy woke us up - the rear of our property is forested conservation area, so there are a LOT of birds back there - our feeder typically has a variety of woodpeckers, bluejays, cardinals, finches and more - quite entertaining. But I haven't heard a whip-poor-will since I was a boy in Western Quebec over 50 years ago - so I was pleasantly surprised to hear this guy squawking away in the middle of the night! My wife was less surprised and a lot less thrilled than me!! Just how rare is this? (the bird sighting, that is, not the "less thrilled" spouse!)

[wcleung]

This is really cool !
On this group, the "less thrilled spouse" may be rare
On how rare to see or hear one: they're just being reported last week at the Point Pelee daily updates. One was sighted in Point Pelee 3 or 4 years ago. (Probably they're reported more often than I remember.) I heard one 3 years ago in Kilarney, and one in Luther Marsh many years ago. I think less often reported than owls ... Perhaps asking an owling group may give more reliable data.
Cheers, Debbie

[Peter C.]

Congratulations, adonlan!

...because that's a really good find! They aren't rare, in a "global" sense, although they are thought to be declining in number (there's something going wrong with the populations of virtually all of the aerial insectivorous birds - nighthawks, swifts, and swallows). As Debby said, they are regularly heard singing in spring at migration spots like Pelee and Rondeau.

But hearing one from your house at the edge of a city - that is rare! I've been birding in K-W for about 29 years now, and I've never heard one here.

PC