News:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon Link

Main Menu

Whip-poor-will

Started by Mudwall Gatewood, June 18, 2012, 15:29:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

_Fish_Pimp

I used to hear bobwhites all around my house in clemmons...haven't heard one around here in several years though. I miss it..haven't heard a whip-poor-will in forever as well. I wonder what happened to them  :(

Stone-Man

We still have a few here in E Tenn. --- But not many  ---     I heard one last week in the woods at my house

  JT

sheepfly

i hear them most time I camp at Davidson River Campground.  I also hear them down here in Cleveland County when turkey hunting.

tomato can

I heard a bobwhite last spring near the house.  I whistled at him and he called back for over 30 minutes.  I used to be able to call 'em so good they would fly up onto this big old oak tree and run up and down the limb looking for the other quail.  I sure do miss those birds.  I may have to fix the Johnny house and raise up a couple of coveys.  It sure would make my new bird dog pup happy.  (and my old one too).

rbphoto

I use to call them in to the backyard all the time as well.

When we first moved in the 26 acres behind us had been clear cut about 2 years prior - perfect place for bobwhites, even with 12-15 feral cats around.

I wiped out the feral cat population, but the bobwhites still didn't thrive more than a couple of years.  I hope they simply moved on but who knows.

What kind of bird dog(s) you got tomato can?  I miss all of mine from years past.
"maybe procrastination is another word for fishing..." ben
"Just butchered my first silk kitty...." Wooly Bugger  January 26, 2018, 12:41:27 PM
You can't land an otter on 7x. Now I know - Dougfish

bmeador

I heard 2 whistling this morning at 0730 behind the house!

natureboy

I heard a few just NE of Blacksburg last summer, haven't heard any this year.

Stone-Man

Muddy

Had a Whip-Or-Will here at day break this morning.   --- Holston Mtn. -- Near Shady Valley ,Tn.

  JT

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

Good news that there are still some around.  Maybe I will hear one this summer.  Nothing environmentally has happened in the area where I heard them as a kid.  Still don't have clue where they've gone.
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

tomato can

I think there has been change. The change might of been so slow and incremental that it may of lain outside our realm of perception.   Most of the GW & TJ National forest has been extensively logged in the past but that is no longer.  There is very limited logging/transitional cover in the GW & TJ National Forest - I believe 1%> is the amount I read somewhere.   This has killed the grouse hunting and I bet the whip or wills.  But logging aint' coming back to the National Forest.   People will scream bloody hell believing that 40 year old trees is old growth forest and old growth forest is the only type of habitat to sustain.  I wonder how many times the National forest has been logged?  3?  4?  more?

Stuart R.

I heard some of them in Brunswick GA back in early May. I was down there for 3 weeks and liked hearing them whistle. Really a neat bird.
Stu
CPR Catch, Photo, Release.

Big J

My question now is has anyone ever seen a whippoorwill?  I've heard they are very hard to spot in the woods due to their coloration.

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

TC, I doubt that the absence of logging/harvest and the resulting successional, edge habitat explains the Whip-poor-will decline.  I know grouse hunters are adamant that maturing forests are the reason for that species decline.  But I think the W-p-w require open deciduous or mixed woodlands with little or no underbrush.

As for the number of times our local National Forest has been logged, that is a good question.  My dad and I were discussing timber harvest last weekend.  He's 83 now and remembers, as a kid, the entire area where he grew up void of any substantial standing timber.  The timber companies had multiple rail lines running along every major waterway, shipping the timber out of the area.  Ridges and slops were bare as he explained it. 

I believe you are correct in that the NF will likely never be mass logged again. 
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon

tomato can

Big Muddy:  when I was serving out my sentence in North New Hampshire I would see pictures of all the mountains I would bird hunt and there would be nary a tree on any hill or mountain top that I hunted.  The contrast was amazing and hard to believe.    I am not a proponent of returning to 19 th Centuray logging practices however a more balanced/nuanced approach would be a benefit for many species, the forest and our own self serving interest.  However forest management in the National Forest is now a political decision at this point and I can not imagine any of the treehuggin' volvo driven' suburban pant loads ever accepting limited logging of the National Forest.  In their minds and the minds of many the national forest is a national park.  And its not. 

Mudwall Gatewood 3.0

I noticed a timber cut on NF in Bath last weekend, so there continues to be a few.  And you are certainly correct, the NFs are not national parks, although there are locales within the NF that are unique and should be protected.  I have softened with age over the management of our NF; as long as they protect the brookie corridors, I am ok.
"Enjoy every sandwich."  Warren Zevon