There are not as many birds calling at night as during the day, but there are at least three. We hear the skreek of the common nighthawk, the eerie pulsing staccato of the lesser nighthawk, and the chuck-will’s-widow. The chuck-will’s widow. Strictly nocturnal. Identified him by his call. It wasn’t too hard, the call is distinctive, and there were about fifteen of them scattered around. Their calls sound something like this: Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. They NEVER get tired! And regardless of where you are and where you shine the flashlight, they’re always just in the next tree or bush. We finally did see one, eye glowing orange in the light. Another fluttered overhead in the dark. New bird.
Junction
East. Nothing but east. Five hundred miles east to South Llano River State Park outside Junction, Texas.
Staying at Llano is like waking up in the walk-in bird aviary at the San Diego Zoo, except it’s bigger, it doesn’t have any fences, it has more birds, and we don’t have to leave. Nonstop cacophony of bird calls, heaviest in the morning, but continues the entire day. So many, we can’t sort it out well enough to even guess how many different calls, most of them exotic for us. We’ve got black vultures soaring smoother than turkey vultures, wild turkeys wandering about among the axis deer, little scalloped inca doves, golden fronted woodpeckers, brilliant red and black vermillion flycatchers, the females with their pale salmon bellies, purple martins, black crested tufted titmouse, tiny verdin, blue-grey gnatcatcher, black and white warbler, yellow breasted chat, bright red summer tanager, clay colored sparrow, field sparrow, black throated sparrow, northern cardinal, blue grosbeak, indigo bunting, and ridiculously bright painted buntings everywhere, the females looking like large sparrow-sized chartreuse parakeets. Three new birds for us, the ruby throated hummingbird, bell’s vireo, and chuck-wills-widow.
Birds
Here he is yakking up a seed.
Birds
It’s not a juniper titmouse, but we did see a tufted titmouse of the black crested variety.
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:steve@taylorroth.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 9:52 AM
To: spt@thetaylorcompany.net
Subject: birds
Las Cruces
South from Cortez, past Ute Mountain, past Shiprock, through the Navajo Nation, to Gallup. East on Interstate 40 to Gallup, Grants, Casa Blanca, and cut across to Los Lunas. South on Interstate 25 through Socorro and Elephant Butte. Stopped for the night at Las Cruces. It was cloudy when we got here. I took a picture of the cloud.