Saturday evening, May 19, my husband, a friend and I had an amazing
whip-poor-will experience. We camp at Boley Field on Poverty Creek Road (about
10 miles west of Blacksburg) the same weekend every May. We almost always hear
whip-poor-wills and a couple of years ago we had one fly over the campground at
dusk, my first countable sighting. This past Saturday around 8:30-9:00 we
heard a whip-poor-will and it was close by - somewhere near the campground
restroom. My husband and our friend were shining their headlamps in that
direction trying to find it when the whip-poor-will flew in and landed
immediately in front of the restroom building. Oh my gosh - there it was!
Sitting right there!! (About 30 feet away from where we were standing). We
watched it sit there for a few seconds and then it called! Another few seconds
went by and then it flew straight up along the face of the building and then
back down to the ground. WOW! We got to see it catching insects! After
another brief interlude it flew again and this time it came straight toward us.
I thought it was going to fly into me - I was actually getting ready to duck -
but it veered off at the last second and headed into the woods. We were able
to see the white patches on the tail. I couldn't contain myself, I was jumping
up and down and squealing with delight. It was an experience beyond my wildest
whip-poor-will dreams!!
Sarah B. Anderson
Cabin John, Maryland
www.sarahanderson.net
