Eastern Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus) (1)
- Reported May 07, 2024 18:15 by Ant Tab
- Prospect Park, Kings, New York
- Map: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=p&z=13&q=40.6602841,-73.9689534&ll=40.6602841,-73.9689534
- Checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S172723615
- Media: 1 Audio
- Comments: "I feel like this is one of those "are these actually that rare or are we just not finding them?" situations. This was my third or fourth evening attempt this spring to listen out for nightjars, although I got kinda freaked out being at the park alone at night the previous times and probably called it quits a bit too early. This time, I decided to commit to sticking around after dark. Once the sun went down, I stood outside Quaker Cemetery (no luck). Then, I tried Lookout Hill (no luck). After that, I waited at the base of the Maryland Monument (no luck). Once the robins quieted down, police sirens outside the park got louder, and someone started playing saxophone under Terrace Bridge. There was so much background noise distracting me, and I was ready to give up. I was on my way out of the park via Breeze Hill around 8:45pm when I heard a faint whistling sound buried under all the cacophony. I legit thought I was imagining it at first, but fortunately, that was not the case. After realizing it was no hallucination, I was able to enjoy the bird's mesmerizing and *iconic* song for about 2-3 minutes. It totally lived up to the hype; one of the rare instances of a bird that I was happy to get as a heard-only lifer. In the moment, I was frustrated that all the noise was messing up my recordings, but in retrospect, it's kinda funny hearing the bird singing under loud sirens, saxophone, and at one point, a guy smashing a glass bottle behind me (sorry for the jump scare in my recording). New York City—greatest city in the world!
P.S. I didn't report this right away because I wasn't sure if people would be like "buhhh you shouldn't report this" so apologies to anyone who is like "buhhh you should've reported this.""
