April 25, 2010

The Chuck-will's-widow, Caprimulgus carolinensis is a nocturnal bird of the nightjar family Caprimulgidae. It is found in the southeastern United States near swamps, rocky uplands, and pine woods. It migrates to the West Indies, Central America, and northwestern South America.

This bird is sometimes confused with the Whip-poor-will (Caprimulgus vociferus)^[1], due to the peculiar and somewhat similar names. Though rather closely related, they are two distinct species.

	Song of the Chuck-will's-widow (in background)
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A fairly generic nightjar, it has mottled brownish underparts, a buff throat, reddish-brown feathers lined with black, and brown and white patterning on head and chest, differing from the gray and black of its more common cousin. Males have patches of white on their outer tail feathers. Its size ranges from 11 to 13 inches (28 to 33 cm) long with a 25 inch (62 cm) wingspan, large for a nightjar and like all of them with a short bill and long tail.

Its common name derives from its continuous, repetitive song that is often heard at night. This consist of a series of calls with a vibrating middle note between two shorter notes, not much shifting in pitch. It is slower, lower-pitched and less piercing than the song of the Whip-poor-will. "Chuckwuts-widow" is another common name less often found, but also imitating the rhythm of the bird's calls.

It eats primarily insects, particular those active at night such as moths, beetles, and winged ants. It will also eat small birds, swallowing them whole.^[2][3]

Females do not build nests, but rather lay eggs on patches of dead leaves on the ground. The eggs, which are pink with spots of brown and lavender, are subsequently incubated by the female.

© Richard Bird / CLO

A large nightjar of the southeastern United States, the Chuck-will's-widow is well known for its continous singing of its name at dusk.

We solved a mystery tonight. For the last two weeks, this bird has set up station right outside the pool area. He/she will call for ten or fifteen minutes and then fly a little ways off, still close enough to hear. The call is really quite loud. I thought it was a whippoorwill. Britt didn't think so, and tonight he looked it up. After hearing the whippoorwill's call, we knew that was not the bird we were hearing. A little research, and voila, it is a chucks-will-widow. Now who the heck named this bird? Anyway, it's quite an ugly bird, looks reptilian to me. If you have trouble making the call work, go to Wikipedia. We learned something new - bet you did too!

I had a rough day today. I fell getting into the bathtub this morning, landing on my right leg, right on top of the locking pin of my prosthetic. I was okay, a little sore, but went on to church. This afternoon, it's been getting worse, like a stone bruise, and I can't walk without pain. Hopefully, it will be better tomorrow.

Fish sticks and squash casserole for lunch today. Lemonade and Fritos for afternoon snack, and cereal for supper (ice cream for dessert). We are trying to think of new things to eat. We'll go to the store tomorrow and maybe we'll find something exciting and different.

We finally got some rain late this afternoon. Really not much more than a sprinkle but it has lasted a few hours now. There's quite a bit of thunder and lightning but only about 1/8 inch of rain. We need a little more than that! Very very breezy today as well.

Today was a sermon of song at church. The choir sang several songs with the pastor reading pertinent scripture between. Mom didn't go today and she would have enjoyed it. We all love music.

No dog park today because of the weather (and my leg) so the dogs will be excited to go tomorrow.

Britt has made a list of several places we want to see and restaurants we want to try. We are planning to attend the Mother's Day concert and will invite all our friends. It should be a lot of fun!