#ThrowbackThursday: A Common Nighthawk

Welcome to the second of many posts (I hope) in a new series I’ve conjured up for my blog, Throwback Thursday. It seems we return from many, many a weekend trip or long vacation and we dive right back into life, with no time to reflect on or share our experiences. My objective here is to break it down into smaller moments of time I can jump back to and share with my readers, rather than sitting down to write a book about our entire trip or experience. Every Thursday, I’ll choose a specific memory to summarize and share, even it’s just a photo and a few words. I hope you find this format a quick, easy, enjoyable read.

A Common Nighthawk

Some of you know that we made our annual trek out to Sturgis this past August and spent some time on our land. We visited with our Sturgis-goer friends the week before the rally, then went north to stay on our land and escape the crowds.

No issues with maintaining a six foot distance here. We saw our neighbors twice in the week we were there, enlarged the electric fence area, mowed down some sagebrush and sat out to enjoy the peace and quiet.

I took several walks down by the seasonal creek that runs through our property and on one particular day, I went out with a bag to gather the many bones I’d seen earlier, of unlucky critters that hadn’t made it. There was a bird flying around above me, letting out a single chirp here and there. I thought nothing of it.

I was walking back to our trailer when I heard what sounded like (I kid you not) a DINOSAUR. It was the most god-awful ROAR I’d ever heard. I spun around expecting to be in deep trouble, approached by an animal I had not noticed coming closer as I walked back.

Nothing.

I stood there for a minute or two, trying to process what I’d just heard. What the hell WAS that?  It’s just me and this bird out here. No sooner did I finish that thought when the bird immediately did a nose dive about 30 feet from me and I hear the noise again. Whew. Now I knew it was the bird and unless he was about to summon his family and recreate the Alfred Hitchcock movie, I knew at least I was not in danger. But holy cow, that freaked me out.

When we got home, I Googled it (of course) and learned that what I heard was likely the common nighthawk. The sound I heard is air rushing through the wing feathers as it swoops down. If you play the audio on this link, this describes exactly what I heard.

Since we’ve returned, I’ve been able to capture photos of a great blue heron and also some sandhill cranes. But this encounter by far was the most interesting way I’ve identified a new species of bird!