VCE Seeks Volunteers for Eastern Whip-poor-will Surveys
April 18, 2018With spring on our doorstep, our whip-poor-will survey team and volunteers are looking forward to sunsets and moonlit nights this year more than ever! Sound like fun? Please join our adventurous volunteers in surveying Whip-poor-will routes across Vermont on moonlit nights. Learn more »
Whip-poor-will Fever
July 27, 2017I remember naively thinking it would be easy to detect a Whip-poor-will singing, with its distinctive sound. It turns out it’s not easy at all! Read more about surveying these birds on the VCE Blog »
Looking in all the Wrong Places
June 06, 2016Monday, May 30th marked the close of stage 1 of VCE’s 2016 Eastern Whip-poor-will (WHIP) surveys for team Sara/h (Sara Zahendra and Sarah Carline). This session was a far cry from West Haven. Fast forward to 2016: this year’s task is to survey routes in southern Vermont, where Whip-poor-wills have not traditionally been found in large (if any) numbers. Why, you might ask, would we subject ourselves to sleep-deprived late night surveys, with slim chances of hearing our beloved goatsucker’s ringing chant? Because zeros matter. It’s important to know where Whip-poor-wills aren’t on the landscape, as well as where they are, particularly if you’re surveying habitat that appears suitable. Read more »
Outdoor Radio: Whip-poor-wills in the Moonlight
July 16, 2015Biologists Kent McFarland and Sarah Zahendra head out to West Haven, Vermont at dusk to brave a cloud of mosquitos in search of the song of the threatened whip-poor-will. They are on the edge of the Helen W. Buckner Preserve in West Haven. Listen to Outdoor Radio »
Birding with Bigfoot
June 18, 2014The forests and fields of West Haven, Vermont, come alive when the sun sets, and calling Whip-poor-wills take center stage amidst howling coyotes, hooting owls, and nocturnal rustlings of, well, who knows what? Maybe Bigfoot. Read the blog »
