Hi all, After spending all day in and around Shawnee State Forest in Scioto and Adams County yesterday, I found dusk growing near, so decided to stay into the evening to look for nightjars. And there were plenty of them about. Along Forest Rd. 1, on the north side of State Rte. 125 I heard and saw about half a dozen Whip-poor-wills. They were very active, and I suspect these were territorial birds already back and loudly singing their whistled songs over and over and over and over. Donald Kroodsma, author of The Singing Life of Birds, counted one individual that sang over 28,800 "tuck-whip-poor-WILLS! in one nine hour span! I don't know what is more amazing - the fact that this species can be so vociferous, or that Don had the patience to actually make that tally. That's about 54 songs an hour, on average, and a whip at full velocity belts out a phrase in a bit over a half-second. Not coincidentally, there was a blizzard of moths of many species fluttering along the forest roads. Whip-poor-wills are totally tied into moths, which make up the bulk of their diet. Also, the moon was full and blazing, and nightjars are most active on moonlight nights, and the fuller the moon, the better. The safe date for Whip-poor-will for the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas isn't until May 25th. The next full moon will be May 19th. If chance allows, keep in eye out for bright moonlit evenings and if possible, get out and check around for whips, and also Chuck-will's-widows in southern Ohio. If you find some birds prior to the safe date, try and get back after May 25th and see if they are still present. These species are not only fascinating to search for and listen to, they tend to be greatly underreported. While habitat loss has certainly diminished this fascinating goatsucker, so have other, more insidious factors. Ill-advised and poorly thought out spraying campaigns to control gypsy moths, coupled with other forms of chemical pollution as well as light pollution from bright night lights, have greatly reduced populations of large moths and thus Whip-poor-wills' main food source. Please send along any observations for the atlas. Most evidence shows a strong decline in Whip-poor-will populations, and this is a bird that we should be keeping a close watch on, to the extent possible. Jim Jim McCormac Columbus, Ohio Like nature? Visit my blog: http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/ Like birds? Join the Ohio Ornithological Society: http://www.ohiobirds.org ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]