Some of my earliest, most vivid memories come from the quietest nights at my grandparents’ cottage on Charleston Lake, in the Frontenac Arch Biosphere in Eastern Ontario. However, this peace was often interrupted by the spooky yet beautiful call of our neighbourhood nightjar species, the Eastern Whip-poor-will. I remember countless nights of bemoaning their repetitive, onomatopoeic, hours-long calling sessions that, in combination with the full moon, caused the loss of much-needed REM sleep.
My family and I moved away to the United States for about 10 years, which meant far fewer visits to the charming, biodiverse gem that is Charleston Lake. After our time in the states, we decided to move back to where our hearts had remained: the Thousand Islands region. With that came a rekindled connection to our family cottage on the lake. Development had increased significantly on the lake during our time away. This development had directly altered habitat and indirectly brought light and sound pollution. These factors disrupt the unique, werewolf-esque hunting strategy of the Whip-poor-will. I would be lying if I said that the 17-year-old version of myself instantly recognized the emptiness of those full-moon nights after ten years away.
Truthfully, this realization of what had been lost, didn’t begin to sink in until five years later when I started my summer contract with the Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust in 2025, post university graduation. In my first week of employment I was given an offer I couldn’t refuse: the chance to join the intrepid TIWLT biology crew and assist Maggie and Matt on the dusk-’til-dark Whip-poor-will monitoring walk. Through the Canadian Nightjar Survey, TIWLT had been conducting surveys of these COSEWIC-designated “Threatened” birds on various properties that TIWLT now cares for, aimed at gathering valuable data on this iconic species.
It was a clear night, about 23°C, on a full-moon Wednesday in July. As we walked through the dense woods of one of the Land Trust’s properties named – get this – Whip-poor-will Woods, we were guided by rich moonlight, incandescent flashlights, a swarm of blood-thirsty mosquitos, and a radiating amphibian chorus. We stopped at our first monitoring site, and suddenly memories flooded back as I heard the infamous call of the Whip-poor-will.
A call that had once been a nuisance to a young, tired child, instantly became a sound of hope. At that moment I heard the concrete proof of TIWLT’s expansive conservation efforts amid rapid development and the sheer importance of protecting land… 4ever!
By: Graeme Podsiad
Summer Wildlife Biologist, Thousand Islands Watershed Land Trust
IMAGE CREDIT: Eastern whip-poor-wills have black whiskers on their mouths called rictal bristles that they use to sense the vibration of insects. (Photo courtesy of Rebecca Reader-Lee/iNaturalist CC BY-NC, via Chesapeake Bay Program.
