Chuck-will's-widow
by Gary Hall
Title
Chuck-will's-widow
Artist
Gary Hall
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The Chuck-will's-widow is the largest member of the nightjar family, being significantly larger than the Whip-poor-will and Common Nighthawk. Another name that is associated with these birds is "goatsuckers" because of the ancient belief that they sucked milk from goats in the middle of the night. This is not the case, however. They were probably attracted to goats because of insects that would be hovering around.
Interestingly enough, the Chuck-will's widow was one of the first birds I photographed when I decided to get serious about bird photography. In Southern Ontario the place to go in the spring to see a large variety of birds is Point Pelee. On arriving in the park, I took the shuttle to the point and noticed a group of bird watchers peering into the bush, so I thought that this would be a good place to begin. Having a difficult time locating what everyone was looking at, I asked the closest person what people were seeing. The answer was a Chuck-will's-widow. Being a novice birder, I had never heard of such a bird and thought that he was "pulling my leg", so I asked another person and got the same answer. I found out that serious bird watchers are extremely helpful and always willing to educate novices like me. Eventually I was able to locate the extremely well camouflaged bird and snapped a few images. I later realized that most birdwatchers haven't had the pleasure of seeing a Chuck-will's-widow and here I was adding it to my rather short life list on my first serious birding endeavor. Sometimes life just isn't fair!
Uploaded
February 9th, 2014
Statistics
Viewed 235 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/23/2024 at 4:28 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet