Sorry, no sighting. Could someone point me to more information about 
this species in Ohio? As for my experience, I recall them keeping me 
awake while camping or at my brother's house in Adams County, but it 
seems to be a mystery for many of us. The OSU Museum has 16 skins: five 
from Adams Co, eight from Arkansas, and two from Florida. I have not 
troubled curators of the museums in Cincinnati and Cleveland about other 
specimens [if you have URLs where an interested member of the public can 
search the catalogs of their collections please let me know!]. Peterjohn 
(2001, pp. 282-3) mentions a bunch of credible Ohio records from dates 
and other locations where nesting was suspected, if not confirmed. See 
the excerpt below from my book about central Ohio, especially the news 
from the late-lamented Canadian expert Alan Wormington that Point Pelee 
had 37 records of this species at their much higher latitude!
        Nightjars have very effective plumage and habits that evade birders 
with binoculars. They vocalize, but only during a brief part of the 
year. They are not as easy to map as robins and egrets. There are some 
quite surprising records; see my account below, which mostly involves 
Franklin County. Several of them come from a location only a couple 
hundred yards from where I now sit in the Clintonville neighborhood of 
Columbus, but Ontario is a stunning locale for these birds.
        My NGO field guide shows the chuck's northernmost range as a finger 
along the Ohio River extending as far east as Gallia County, but this 
seems to be a guess.
Thanks,
Bill Whan

"Chuck-will’s-widow  Antrostomus carolinensis.  Discovered by Ohio’s 
ornithological community only in  1932, as nesters in Adams County, and 
studied by OSU and Wheaton Club ornithologists (Thomas 1932).  One was 
collected the following year near Dayton (Blincoe, Auk (50(3):362).  As 
far as is generally known, a quite rare stray as far north as Franklin 
County, although there are 37 records from Point Pelee alone, just 
across Lake Erie in southern Ontario (A. Wormington, pers. comm.).  Its 
distinctive insistent call was heard in a limestone area in Upper 
Arlington near the Scioto on the interesting date of 6/7/1952 by 
earwitnesses, in person and over a telephone, at the time the species’ 
northernmost known occurrence in Ohio (WB 65(1):43, Thomas MS at OHS). 
Floyd Chapman, a witness to that 1952 event, also heard them singing in 
two different years in the Walhalla Ravine during the 1960s and ‘70s 
(precise dates unknown; J. Fry in litt.).  A migrant was discovered by 
daylight on a log at Green Lawn Cemetery 5/2/1983 (AB 37(5):876).  A 
Hamilton County specimen #35258 at the Cincinnati Museum came from 
2/28/1994, and that museum added another found in Clermont County on 
12/12/2005, attesting to this species’ occasional hardiness.  Our 
ignorance about its breeding range is well hinted by many regional 
records of calling males, without further data, from Ohio well into 
Ontario."

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Please consider joining our Society, at www.ohiobirds.org/site/membership.php.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.


You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
listserv.miamioh.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]