Listing Through Life

caprimulgus (from caper, goat, and mulgeo, to milk) vociferus (noisy)

Friday, May 28, 1982 — 9:30 pm

McNaughton, Wisconsin — Spider Lake Road

My wife and I took a walk to look for Whip-poor-wills. We had just rounded the sharp turn and started down the hill where the road crosses a marsh and creek. Just before the road turns again to cross the marsh, we heard a Whip-poor-will. I played its song on tape. A male flew out of the woods, passed us about five feet away, banked around past again, then disappeared into the woods and began singing again. We stayed in the area and kept playing the tape. About five minutes later, we saw it again as it flew past.

It continued singing on and off for the hour we were within earshot, a four-syllable, endlessly-repeated, rapid “whip-poor-dur-will.”

spizella (finch) pallida (pale)

Friday, May 28, 1982 — 6:30 pm

McNaughton, Wisconsin — Spider Lake Road

I was driving up the road toward McNaughton for some long-forgotten reason when I saw a hawk flying over a field. I pulled over to the side of the road to take a look. When I got out of the car, I spotted a sparrow fly out of some bushes along the road and land on a fence by a grove of small red pines. It then flew from the bottom strand of the fence to the top of a wooden fence post. It sang its song once, then took off into the field across the road. Its song was four buzzy notes on the same pitch.

calidris (speckled water bird) canutus (the Danish King Canute, or Knut, who was know for trying to hold back the tide)

Sunday, May 23, 1982 — 4:00 pm

Racine, Wisconsin — Wind Point — Lake Michigan

I was wandering along the rocky beach between Lake Michigan and the golf course near the tip of Wind Point. I spotted the Red Knot walking with a large flock of Ruddy Turnstones. At one point, it walked about five feet away from the flock, then flew back into the middle of the group. As I approached, the flock flushed and headed out over the lake in a compact clump, turned in unison and disappeared to the south. The Red Knot flew right in the center of the clump.

vireo (bird) philadelphicus (of the city of Philadelphia, where it was first collected by John Cassin in 1851)

Saturday, May 15, 1982 — 10:00 am

Elk Grove Village, Illinois — Busse Woods

This must have been the stage of my birding experience when I gained the expertise necessary to identify vireos. I got three lifer vireos in a week. I tracked this one down by its song. It was foraging slowly through the woods, moving branch to branch, up and down from treetops to under-story (as low as 15 feet above the ground). It was picking at leaves and occasionally fluttering out like a flycatcher. It often stopped to sing. It moved slower than the warblers that were foraging nearby. I spotted a Red-eyed Vireo about five minutes later. The Philadelphia Vireo was smaller, and its song, although similar, was slower and not as continuous.

vireo (bird) flavifrons (from flavus, yellow, and frons, forehead)

Saturday, May 8, 1982 — 3:00 pm

Des Plaines, Illinois — Des Plaines River

The Yellow-throated Vireo was foraging slowly, branch to branch, near the top of a tall tree in the woods along the river.