Jonny,It was great to see u again at the WW!
Back in Dallas now.
Thought this from the Cannock Chase might interest you:
http://www.chasepost.net/news-in-cannock/cannock-burntwood-news/2009/08/13/rare-bird-flourishes-on-the-chase-93633-24435989/
Best,
Nick
One of my bird field guides calls the nightjar family by a very strange name.
ReplyDeleteIt calls them "goatsuckers," so maybe they are the real chupacabras. I have no idea how they got that particular name.
We have night hawks and whoop-poor-wills. The latter of which make a sound that says exactly like "whip-poor-will." Well, it sounds like that at a distant. When one lands in a tree beside your house and starts firing up, it sounds like the worst police siren you've ever heard!
This species in a lot of trouble. Its numbers have sharply decreased in recent years. And we really don't know why.
Interestingly, one the nightjars of the Pacific Coast actually hibernates, going into torpor for up to several weeks at a time.
I just noticed that the post had the scientific name for their order, and if my high school Latin is any good, it literally is derived from the words that mean "goat sucker."
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