[mou] Whip-poor-wills

[Dennis/Barbara Martin]

We have been spending the last few evenings and nights looking for
Whip-poor-wills along the Minnesota River Valley.  Bob Janssen's book said
that they are "casual to rare in the southwest, west central, and central
regions" in migration.  This would include the Minnesota River valley in its
western half.  In the summer season he doesn't mention the area but the map
does show a narrow finger of breeding area following the river west to
Yellow Medicine County.  For our purposes here being present during June is
a case for a possible breeding territory while being present in May could be
mean a migratory bird.

Sightings from The Loon in the last 20 years are rather few.  In the summer
season there are 6 reports scattered throughout the valley from Yellow
Medicine to LeSueur, and we have had a couple of others in the summer season
that weren't listed.  In other words not a lot of sightings or information
is available that is recent.

Thus we have been pleasantly surprised to find the birds that we have found
in the past few days.  We have found birds in Redwood (3), Brown, LeSueur,
Scott, and Carver.   We have not checked Sibley, Nicollet or Renville yet
but we have found them there in recent past years  Nor have we tried west of
Redwood yet.  The Carver County birds have been in the same area for years
based on our experiences.  The others are new areas for us.

My question is what have others been finding?  Why do we sometimes have
birds singing and other times they stay quiet?  What is the preferred
habitat?  Our birds have all been near the river (1/4 mile or less), in a
heavily wooded area, and on a relatively steep hillside.  But are all three
of these things necessary in this valley?  Does wind make a difference in
finding the birds?  The bugs are certainly less of a problem with a breeze,
but we seem to have more of a problem finding birds with a breeze present.
Does anybody have any Whip-poor-will experience with the area of the river
valley west of Redwood County?

Dennis and Barbara Martin
dbmartin@skypoint.com