I have always been
fascinated with birding at night, particularly here in southeast Arizona. The density and diversity of night birds
(owls & goatsuckers) is incredible in the canyons and mountain forest of
the Sky Islands. Buff-collared Nightjars
are of particular interest owing to their scarcity and the remoteness of their
haunts.
Very early Saturday (5/25/2013) morning Justin
Hopkins reported hearing a Buff-collared Nightjar singing at 3am near the
primitive campsites along Proctor Road just outside of Madera Canyon. This report came in Saturday evening and was
nearly immediately followed by a report from Henry Detwiler. Henry must have
been in the area, saw the initial report and was able to hear the nightjar
calling at 9PM. I saw Henry’s report as
I was settling down with my wife to watch a movie. I almost took off but reconsidered being that
my wife & I had just come in from a night hike in Madera Canyon. I figured I would watch the movie and try for
the nightjar very early (predawn) Sunday morning.
A few minutes into the movie (which I was really not
watching) Andrew Core sends a text message stating that he was coming down for
the nightjar. Within an hour Andrew
picks me up and at 10 minutes before midnight we are on Proctor Road. Seconds
after getting out of Andrew’s vehicle, we hear the nightjar singing. We follow the sounds and are rewarded with a
distant non-obscured view of the bird sitting near the top of a mesquite for a
minute or two. Most of the view was eye shine and bit of the birds shape. We both make recordings of the bird with our
iPhones (internal mic) and I snap a picture as the bird took off. Andrew’s recording was good enough to
document this wonderful rarity. The
image I obtained shows a rounded winged, longish tailed, brownish blob in
flight, if you use your imagination. The
bird ceased calling and we made our way up Madera Canyon to listen for other
night birds. Andrew & I must have
just missed Jeremy Medina who reported the nightjar singing non-stop between
11:15 & 11:40 pm.
Up canyon, Andrew & I heard Elf Owl, Whiskered
Screech-Owl, Flammulated Owl, Common Poorwill, and Mexican Whip-poor-will
(photographed). We returned to the
Proctor Road dispersed campground at 2AM and hear Western Screech-Owl, Great
Horned Owl, Elf Owl, Lesser Nighthawk, and Common Poorwill. No Buff-collared Nightjar at this hour.
Less than seventeen hours later (Sunday 5/26 19:00) Louise
and I are taking another night hike in Madera Canyon, this evening we take the
Carrie Nation Trail up to the second stream crossing. We have a wonderful time with the dusk
chorus. We hear a male Elegant Trogon
calling just above the bench. As it
gets dark we hear Whiskered Screech- & Elf Owls and see one or two Mexican
Whip-poor-wills.
Rather than heading straight home, Louise had agreed
to stop by the nightjar spot. Louise had
accompanied me on many unsuccessful nightjar searches in the area. Once, several years ago, we found a birding
tour guide leader blasting a tape but no real nightjars. We arrived at the spot at 20:30 and
immediately heard the nightjar singing to the southwest. Much of the birding crowd had left or was
leaving, Louise and I ventured into the brush to see if we can find this bird.
We hooked up with another group of birders with the same ambitions. We all make our way through the brush towards
the singing nightjar. Within a few
minutes one of the other birders finds eye shine and shows the bird to most of
us. We repeat this a few times until all
present have had satisfactory views of this bird. I was even able to obtain some poor images of
the nightjar suitable for documentation.
As the others returned to their vehicles, Louise understood my
intentions and agreed to press further into the darkness. The terrain worsened, rocky & sloped, and
the vegetation got thicker and pricklier.
We followed the singing bird, both the sounds and eye shine. Eventually we arrive where we have a relatively
clear view. I was able to take several
images with Louise holding the flashlight, my “light in the darkness”. Being satisfied that I had some decent shots
of the Buff-collared Nightjar and knowing that I was pressing Louise’s patience
we retreat leaving the nightjar to the darkness of the night. The best of the images from the evening were
submitted to AZFO and
with a voice recording had made earlier in the evening. This is fantastic; we have a reliable
Buff-collared Nightjars outside of Madera Canyon.
Jumping ahead a few
days. On Friday 5/31/2013 a friend sent e-mail asking if there could be
other Buff-collared Nightjars in the area, like in Chino or Montosa
Canyons. I replied by adding Florida
& McCleary Washes and Faber Canyon. Chino
Canyon & McCleary Wash have hosted nightjars in the past. I have heard one along Florida Wash near the
research station and speculated about their presence in Faber & Montosa
Canyon. That evening Louise and I drive
up the road leading to Faber Canyon for about a mile. After parking we walk perhaps another half
mile. We first heard the Buff-collared
Nightjar calling at 19:55, it may have been calling earlier. The terrain in this area could easily have blocked
the call. We last heard the bird at
20:27, which was the last time we listened for it on the drive out. I attempted to record this bird’s voice several
times, I have one recording with several songs barely above the noise floor.
This bird seemed to be singing less frequently than the Proctor bird earlier
this week; three song sequences within 20-30 seconds then several minutes of no
(or not heard) singing. So are at least
two nightjars in the area!
The next night Saturday
6/1/2013 I had agreed to help my buddy Joe Hammond find the nightjar for
his friend John Watts visiting from Columbus.
The nightjar began calling at 19:43 to the delight of about forty
birders not so spread out along the Proctor Road. The nightjar may have been calling earlier
but multiple Northern Mockingbirds were also talking and one was learning the
nightjar song. The nightjar sang nearly
continuously through 20:05. Much of the
crowd was still present and appeared to be ready to follow me into the
bush. I commented to Joe that we can’t
get closer to the bird with all these people; someone could get hurt and no one
is likely to see the bird. Somehow we
were able to separate ourselves from the group and get into the bush to see the
nightjar. The views were good and the bird was undisturbed.
Joe & John headed up canyon to search for other
night birds and I headed towards home. I
made a stop at McCleary Wash to determine if there was a nightjar present
here. To my astonishment, I heard a nightjar
sing twice from across the wash. That
puts the local count of Buff-collared Nightjars at three.
Jan N. from San Diego asked that I show her the
Buff-collared Nightjar. On Sunday 6/2/2013 the bird began singing
at 19:40 about 200 yards south of site 8.
He sang continuously until 20:16 and generally moved southeast up a small
wash. We did not get close enough to
disturb or flush the bird. The manner in
which the bird was singing and moving indicated that he was marking territory
and/or foraging. By now, Jan & I were joined by John M. from Phoenix. After a long ten minutes of silence, the bird
gave a short series of songs at 20:26.
More silence followed by a blast of songs close to our location. After another
minute or so silence we heard wing clapping (wish I had my recorder on). And another couple of minutes of silence
followed by another close burst of songs and we were able to detect eye shine.
Jan & John were able to see plumage features (buffy collar) through
vegetation while I held the light. We
shifted our position a few to get a less obscured view while the nightjar
continued singing and sallying for bugs, the appearing to be disturbed.
Monday
6/3/2013 afternoon I was asked by a
couple from Tucson to help them find the nightjar. We first heard singing at 19:42 about 200
yards south of site 8, continuous singing for less than ten minutes. There was silence for several minutes followed
by one series of songs about 100-150 yards south of site 8 near the “guzzler”. Others reported to have observed the bird
flying to the northwest roughly down a small drainage and heard it sing. After a long period without any audible
vocalizations we began to hear sporadic singing around 21:10 and some chuck
calls and a growling call. The calls
were attributed to the nightjar since they associated with it time-wise and
emanated from the same area as the distinctive song. I tried but was not able
to record the calls. At about 21:50 the
nightjar began singing infrequently apparently foraging since it was moving around
a fair bit. We were able to see eye
shine and plumage around 22:00 for a few minutes and at 22:12 I was able to
find the bird perched silently on the same
branch it perched on the previous
night. We left the bird after ten
minutes and shortly thereafter it began singing and moving around (apparently
foraging). It was still calling at 23:06
when we got into our vehicles at site 7.
On Tuesday
6/4/2013 I tried to hear the nightjar in McCleary Wash again, I hoped to
get a recording. I did find several very
cooperative Common Poorwills but did not hear the nightjar.
The Proctor Road nightjar was being reported nightly
and on Friday 6/7/2013 an observer speculated at two birds present. There had been previous speculation of
multiple birds. This was based on hearing songs at different volume levels from
the same direction; this multiple bird speculation was discounted. The speculation on Friday was based on
hearing singing birds at different locations about a half-mile apart. On Saturday
6/8/2013 night I found one bird southwest of the “guzzler” and a second
bird later at the cattle guard on Proctor Road near the dry stream
crossing. Other observers this night
reported hearing both birds singing at the same time form different directions.
Now there are two male Buff-collared Nightjars along Proctor Road.
On Tuesday
6/11/2013 Louise and I went back up to Faber Canyon. I hoped to get a better voice recording of
the singing nightjar. Rather than
driving the rough road up Faber Canyon we walked. At 19:55 a female Buff-collared Nightjar flew
past us at about thirty feet. There was
adequate light to see that the tips of the outer retrices were pale but not
white. At 20:32 we heard the male
singing at least three times in the distance from our position, not too far
from where we saw the female. I wonder
if males that are paired call less than unpaired males.
On Friday
6/14/2013 while updating the bulletin board at the Proctor Road parking
area, Louise and I heard one nightjar singing from across Madera Creek due
south of our position. On the 16th, after another evening
hike we hear two nightjars singing at the same time from campsite #3 along
Proctor Road. The songs of the two
individuals were overlapped in time. On
the 18th I took Mary,
Chris, and Nina (all from Green Valley) up to Proctor Road to listen for the
nightjar. As if on cue one begins
singing at 19:47 south of the “guzzler”.
I have been writing this blog entry since the 27th
of May and it is about time I post. I am hopeful this story is not over and that
there will be more to come!
