Long time passing.

Can’t you just hear that sung to a Pete Seeger tune by Peter, Paul & Mary?

All kidding aside, though, where have the whip-poor-wills gone?  When I was a kid, they were one of the few birds I could recognize by their call.  The other being a bob-white.

For me to recognize them, they must have been pretty prevalent.  Now, I never hear a whip-poor-will or a bob-white.

A little research shows that they are indeed in decline, and no one is quite sure why.  Destruction of habitat due to building, pesticides that kill their food source, and global warming are the most common reasons cited for the dwindling numbers.

My uncle has another theory, although I’m not sure it holds good for areas farther afield than Florida.  He thinks the egrets eat the whip-poor-wills’ eggs.  Whip-poor-wills, and for that matter, bob-whites nest on the ground.  And egrets have been known to prey on the eggs of sea birds–so I guess it’s possible.  I suspect it is also true that the egrets are a more efficient competition for the same food.

They do seem to be efficient.  They have very few predators, and as long as humans raise cattle, their habitat will survive.  They do okay.  First bred in Florida in 1953, they had spread to Canada by 1962 and California by the mid-sixties. A successful species.

So, I don’t know. A bunch of egrets following a  herd of cattle is a pretty sight, but I do miss the whip-poor-will’s song.