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Nightjar News Volume 6 Issue 1
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Contents

WildResearch Nightjar Survey
1. Program Transfer to Birds Canada
2. 2019 Annual Report
3. We Appreciate You!
4. Nightjar Shirt Sale
5. Welcome New Coordinators
6. 2020 Survey Season & COVID-19


Research & Conservation
1. Great Canadian Birdathon
2. Lunar cycle control of nightjar migration
3. Whip-poor-will Wintering Grounds


Fun Feature
1. Chuck-will's-widows Article
Hi Nightjar Enthusiasts,
 
With mixed feelings, I deliver to you the final Nightjar News from WildResearch. It's been an immeasurable pleasure to work with you all over the past ten years. The program has been so much more than just the lines of data; we are so grateful for each and every interaction and the insights you have shared on this fascinating group of birds. We're sad to close the WildResearch chapter of nightjar monitoring in Canada but so excited about the bright future with Birds Canada.

I know these are strange and unprecedented times with COVID-19, and that additional change is difficult right now, but we're confident this transition will benefit all you volunteers as well as the nightjars. That being said, there is some uncertainty around this year's survey season. You should have received an email recently from Andrew Coughlan, the new Program Manager, and those details are reiterated below in this Nightjar News.

But there's lots of other good stuff in this issue! We present our final Annual Report, as well as the opportunity to purchase some pretty awesome Canadian Nightjar Survey shirts designed by our Ontario Coordinator, Elora Grahame.


Nocturnally yours,

Elly Knight
WildResearch Nightjar Survey Program Manager


 

WildResearch Nightjar Survey News

1. Program Transfer to Birds Canada

Just in case you missed our special announcement in February, we're excited to announce that our little nightjar program has grown up to become the Canadian Nightjar Survey, and has a found a new, permanent home at Birds Canada. We’ve shown how valuable nocturnal monitoring is for nightjar conservation, and the program joins an important suite of long-term citizen science surveys that are supported by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The capable and bilingual Andrew Coughlan is taking over the reigns as Program Manager and will guide the Canadian Nightjar Survey into its next phase of operation.

You can read more about the program transfer in our announcement article here, in Birds Canada's announcement here, and in the latest edition of BirdWatch Canada here.


2. 2019 Annual Report

The 2019 Annual Report for the WildResearch Nightjar Survey is now available on the WildResearch website here! As the program is moving to Birds Canada, this will also be the final Annual Report from WildResearch for the program. The 2019 report is brought to you by the Regional Coordinators and WildResearch Board of Directors, but particularly by Alex Noble-Dalton who led the authoring of this years' report. A big thanks to Alex and the rest of the team! Highlights from this year's report include:

  • Citizen scientists surveyed and submitted data for 1,671 survey stations along 146 routes;
  • Volunteers reported observations of 731 Common Nighthawks, 26 Common Poorwills, and 48 Eastern Whip-poor-will detections;
  • Updates from each of the eight survey regions, including the new Manitoba region;
  • Spotlights on historical data from Nova Scotia and the Daly Point Nature Reserve;
  • Reflections on the past ten years of nightjar surveys; and
  • An introduction from Andrew Coughlan, incoming Program Manager at Birds Canada.

And as always, huge thanks to the citizen scientists that collect the data that went into the 2019 Annual Report!
 



3. We Appreciate You!

This year, we have an extra special gift to show our appreciation for your contributions over the past decade, and to commemorate this new stage of nightjar monitoring in Canada. If you had an address saved with us in your nightjar atlas account, you should have received a Canadian Nightjar Survey window cling that you can put on the back window of your car to show passersby what you’re up to! The window cling is a woodcut print of a Common Nighthawk designed by our Ontario Regional Coordinator, and artist extraordinaire, Elora Grahame!

On behalf of the WildResearch Board of Directors and all the Regional Coordinators, sincere thanks to you. Thanks to the new volunteers who have just joined us to help survey for these nocturnal beauties. And to our long-term volunteers, thank you for sticking with us through the growing pains of getting the program up and running. We look forward to a bright future for nightjar monitoring and conservation in Canada!



4. Nightjar Shirt Sale

We've also designed a nightjar shirt to celebrate the bright future of nightjar monitoring Canada! The shirt features the same woodcut print of a Common Nighthawk perched atop a fence post by Elora Grahame, our Ontario Regional Coordinator.

Shirts are available on RedBubble here. There are a variety of styles available, starting at $18.61 plus shipping for a basic t-shirt. You can purchase a shirt in any colour, but we recommend black with white printing to signify the nocturnal nature of our nightjar friends!



5. Welcome New Coordinators

Two of our long-term Regional Coordinators are moving on this year, taking on new and exciting jobs in ecology outside of their current survey regions. We're sad to see them go, but also excited to introduce you to the fabulous folks that will fill their big shoes!

  • Saskatchewan regional coordinator, Gabriel Foley, is stepping down to take a full-time position coordinating the Breeding Bird Atlas in Maryland and DC. To fill the Saskatchewan Regional Coordinator role, Nicole Lerminiaux, a long-time WildResearch volunteer, is coming on board. Nicole was introduced to nightjars in 2013, while working with another regional coordinator, Paul Preston. Paul was doing his masters on Common Poorwill biology, and Nicole was his field technician. She learned that, while all birds are good birds, nightjars are the best birds and has continued to run surveys for them ever since. Now, Nicole is a PhD student at the University of Regina studying how different microbes either compete or cooperate with each other. Welcome aboard, Nicole!
  • Yukon Regional Coordinator, Andrea Sidler, is stepping down to take a full-time position with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Shyloh van Delft will be taking over, and we have no doubt she'll do a great job. Shyloh is a fantastic birder and very active participant in the Yukon birding community. Her knowledge and community connections will make her a wonderful addition to nightjar monitoring!
Please join us in extending an enormous and sincere thank you to Gabriel and Andrea for all their hard work these past four years. You've been a privilege and pleasure to work with!
 
6. 2020 Survey Season & COVID-19


The coming Canadian Nightjar Survey season is up in the air, given the current COVID-19 situation. Below is a message from new Program Manager, Andrew Coughlan:

We will all look back on 2020 and remember how the world health crisis caused us to alter our normal routine to reduce the risk of spreading the COVID-19 virus. Your health and safety are very important to us and although the nightjar survey period is still some time away and it is as yet unclear how the situation will evolve and whether surveys for nightjars can go ahead, I'd like to encourage you to read the message from our president Steven Price and our current policy that are available here.


Nightjar Conservation & Research News

1. Great Canadian Birdathon

The Great Canadian Birdathon is an annual fundraiser hosted by Birds Canada, and this year, it has a nightjar twist!!! Each year, Birds Canada designs a shirt for participants to wear, and this year's shirt has not one, not two, but THREE Common Nighthawks on it!

The Great Canadian Birdathon started in 1976 as the Baillie Birdathon and funds raised support Birds Canada and the James L Baillie Fund, which goes to supporting grass roots ornithology and conservation programs, including the WildResearch Nightjar Survey in 2014!

Learn more and sign up here!


2. Lunar Cycle Control of Nightjar Migration

For aerial insectivores like nightjars, migration is fuelled by insects. For nocturnal nightjars, the ability to  fuel up for migration might be linked to the lunar cycle. Researcher Gabriel Norevik and his team at Lund University in Sweden have recently shown that European Nightjars do indeed migrate more when the moon is full! They deployed tags that sample flight activity through acceleration on adult nightjars, and found that the birds foraged more when the moon was more full, and were more likely to migrate on nights following full moons (i.e., after they'd had a good fuel up)!

You can read the study in the journal PLOS Biology here.


3. Whip-poor-will Wintering Grounds
Little is known about where nightjars spend their winters, but understanding the full annual cycle of these species is important for effective conservation. So Chris Tonra and his coauthors at Ohio State University deployed GPS tags on Eastern Whip-poor-wills to find out exactly where these birds go in the winter and what the habitat is like. They found the birds wintered from Texas all the way south to Panama, and that they primarily occupied forested habitat. You can read the study open-access in the journal Ecology and Evolution here.

 


Fun Feature
 
1. Chuck-will's-widow Article
The Chuck-will's-widow is North America's largest, and arguably, most nightmarish nightjar, which is why Andy McGlashen decided to feature it in this month's 'Better Know a Bird' article for Audubon. Did you know that Chucks have been known to eat small songbirds??? You can read all about it in Andy's entertaining article here.

 
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