Dad always claimed he heard them and it meant it was gonna rain tomorrow. 🤪
Never heard or saw one. 😬
"Allways speak the truth and you will never have to remember what you said before..." Sam Houston Texans, "We say Grace, We Say Mam, If You Don't Like it, We Don't Give a Damn!"
Them and the Wood Thrush put me into a trance. No sound nicer in the Spring and Summer. One time I had a Whippoorwill land on the steps to the entrance of a camp bus I was laying in. The door was open and I came up out of the chair I was napping in like I was shot. It started hollering and I didn't have a clue it was there. They are really loud close up!
This might sound goofy but when you’re listening to either one, if you cup your hands behind your ears it’ll add a whole ‘Nother layer of fidelity to what you’re hearing.
45 years ago I could stand on a hilltop in Upstate NY in June in the evening and hear wood thrush upon wood thrush off into the distance. Not nearly as many now.
Habitat destruction in the Tropics sure but a few weeks back a lady who worked on a Preserve back East told me too many whitetails can destroy the forest understory up here, ruining the habitat.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
I remember seeing a lot of Wood Thrush around a then recent clear cut also at my grandparents place. I had a lot of fun sitting on a hill in the middle of the clear cut listening to them at sunset and occasionally picking off vermin with my Ruger 10/22. Being a clear cut surround by mostly mature maples and swamp it was overrun with deer. I shot my first two deer within two hundred yards of that hill.
Dad always claimed he heard them and it meant it was gonna rain tomorrow. 🤪
Never heard or saw one. 😬
The rain crow I’m familiar with in folklore is the yellow-billed cuckoo, late migrants just arriving as we speak.
Point of interest they’re hairy caterpillar specialists, Ming the few birds that can eat then. They shed the lining of their stomach with the mat of hairs attached.
No good YouTube’s with the calls, the Audubon people have the best recordings (scroll down) but they put everything in the context of climate change.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
Rain bird? We called them rain crows in WVA. Black or Yellow Billed cuckoo. Only maybe one or two heard over an entire summer.
This! We got lots of em here ! Rain Crows!!! Yellow Billed Cuckoo
Founder Ancient Order of the 1895 Winchester
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Whipporwills usually start up in early March up here. As soon as we start hearing the Peepers down at the cow pond, the Whipporwills are not far behind.
To me, they sound perverse: "Whippor-WILL! Whippor-WILL! Whippor-WILL! But-she-won't! But-she-won't! But-she-won't! Not with YOU! Not with YOU! Not with YOU!
When I first got down here 20+ years ago, we also had Chuck Will's Widow. They came out a bit later in the year. However, they disappeared with the grouse. I haven't heard one in a decade.
I was camping once on Kerr Reservoir and one was calling in a tree right over top of me. It was like a car alarm going off. Threw rocks toward the noise but it didn't care. No sleeping with one that close.
"Come, shall we go and kill us venison? And yet it irks me the poor dappled fools, Being native burghers of this desert city, Should in their own confines with forked heads Have their round haunches gored."
Used to hear them frequently when we went to a cottage every year in Northern Wisconsin as a kid. One of my childhood memories, lying in bed listening to them. Have never heard one in South West Wisconsin, don't know if they used to be around here and have declined.
Sitting on my porch listening to a wood thrush behind the house, watching the flashes of: orange from orioles, yellow of the gold finches and yellow warblers, red from the cardinals, and blue from the indigo buntings, makes me feel incredibly fortunate to live where I do
"Put none but Americans on guard tonight." -George Washington
We have a bird here that is called a Night Hawk. People used to call them Whippoorwills or Rainbirds. They come out in the evening and catch flying insects. The only vocal sound I ever heard them make were peeps. But they can make some real neat sounds with their wings----I think part of a mating ritual. I saw about a dozen of them the other evening, but not near as many as a few year ago. I have only seen one of them not flying ,sitting on a tree limb in town. I have always wondered if Night Hawk was their proper name.
I just did my research and they actually are Night Hawks and are related to the Whippoorwills!
I caught one fly fishing and it was almost dark and the bird got tangled up in the leader and hit the water. I unwrapped the line and the bird flew away.
We have a bird here that is called a Night Hawk. People used to call them Whippoorwills or Rainbirds. They come out in the evening and catch flying insects. The only vocal sound I ever heard them make were peeps. But the can make some real neat sounds with their wings----I think part of a mating ritual. I saw about a dozen of them the other evening, but not near as many as a few year ago. I have only seen one of them not flying sitting on a tree limb in town. I have always wondered if Night Hawk was their proper name.
The middle/ eastern part of Michigan's lower peninsula has an area known loosely as the sand and oak plains and Night Hawks are fairly common in the area. I've spent hours watching and listening to them.
The wing noise is the feathers "rattling" as they pull out of a dive, which they do in pursuit of flying insects.