A pair of nightjars: Common Nighthawk and Eastern Whip-poor-will

 

As always, click the image to enlarge

A Common Nighthawk roosts about 20 feet off the ground, on a horizontal tree branch. This is a typical roosting spot for these nightjars.

Almost immediately after arriving at the Magee Marsh parking lot last Wednesday, some friends informed me of not one, but two roosting nightjars along the nearby Estuary Trail. Never one to miss out on good looks at nightjars, I soon arrived at the scene. The above is a classic nighthawk roosting spot, off the ground on a horizontal limb. Because of the situation, this bird stuck out pretty well, sometimes they are far harder to see.

At one point, the nighthawk had to relieve itself. It stood on its impossibly tiny feet and legs, waddled 90 degrees so that it was perpendicular to the limb, and blasted its effluvia to the ground. It did not want to foul its roosting spot.

This posture better showcased its barred underparts, and we can see the white patch on its primary flight feathers that is so conspicuous in flight. This bird likely wintered somewhere in South America, although the wintering range of Common Nighthawk is imperfectly understood. Suffice to say, this nighthawk has already come a LONG way and may still have some distance to go (this species breeds well into Canada and even gets into Alaska).

A hundred yards or less away was this Eastern Whip-poor-will. As is typical, it was roosting on a log on the ground, in a tangled area, and was much harder to see.

For photography purposes, it was fortuitous that these animals were not along the famed "bird trail" boardwalk. Because of all the birder traffic, taking a tripod onto the boardwalk is taboo, as it should be. There simply isn't room, and all shooting should be handheld. But I was using my 800mm, and it is a tank of a lens and not something most people would want to handhold for extended periods, me included. But there's no such problem on the wide-open estuary trail, thus I could use my 800mm f/5.6 lens and the extra reach of the big lens was hugely helpful, especially for the nighthawk which was further away. For some reason, I did not have my 1.4x teleconverter in my backpack, or I would have used that too. The 800/1.4x combo makes for an 1120 mm f/8 lens, and for subjects such as these roosting nightjars, it works perfectly. Nonetheless, even the bare 800mm was okay, even with a fair bit of cropping.