By Gabriel Falcione from University of Vermont
Being a nocturnal animal as far north as Atlin, British Columbia seems to be an oxymoron. With less than 5 hours of darkness, being active mostly at night doesn’t seem advantageous, yet the Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) persists. We hear them frequently outside the cabin, a distant “peent” or the unmistakable wing-boom telling you it’s probably time for bed. Yet when light fades into the next day, it’s easy to sit outside and watch them dance in the sky.
When given the opportunity to participate in nightjar surveys I happily accepted, even if it meant leaving by 10pm. We packed into the truck and took a short drive to the survey location. The goal of the surveys was to observe and count nightjars, a family which includes the Common Nighthawk, Common Poorwills (Phalaenoptilus nuttallii), and Eastern Whip-poor-wills (Caprimulgus vociferus). Although the area of Atlin contains only common nighthawks. Our survey involved driving to 10 stops, at each stop we would spend 6 minutes in silence listening and scanning the landscape for calls and sightings.
Nightjars are an important group of birds, they are insectivores – consuming flying insects during the night. Nighthawks are not actually to true hawks. Nighthawks are threatened under the Species at Risk Act, these surveys act as a mean to increase understanding of their associated habitat, abundance, and distribution. During the first night of the surveys, Grace, Meghan, Sara, and I were all startled by the machine-like sound close to us. This is called a wing-boom and is caused by the wings during a nosedive. Wing-booms are thought to be used to attract potential mates and act as a territorial defense. These wing-booms are unmistakable, and we had heard them from around the cabin later at night, but never in the close vicinity of this survey spot. The next night we were only able to observe one nighthawk, but able to see other wildlife along the road including a beaver (Castor canadensis).
My favorite part of this program has been the fieldwork. The nightjar surveys were a unique part of this program mainly because of how late we stayed out. During both surveys I participated in, we didn’t get back to the cabin until 1:30 am. This was the first time during this program that I was able to witness the true dark of the night, which made going to bed much easier compared to the full daylight at 10pm. This fieldwork was also much different than what we have done with other projects so far, which mostly consisted of hiking up to high altitudes to conduct ungulate studies or conducting transects to collect information for plant make up. Hopping out of the car, clipboard in hand, and immediately surveying was a nice switch up from the very fun but exhausting days in the field.
Although the species is threatened, these birds are not uncommon around the cabin that we use as a basecamp. If you sit at the firepit outside past 10, you are guaranteed to hear one. The white stripe on their wing is harder to spot, but their flight is unmistakable. They dive and swing, circling patterns in the sky. Unable to bear the mosquitos, I often listen to them in the comfort of my tent, knowing that the nighthawks dance in the light nights of British Columbia.
