Night Walk

My neighbor Steven McDonald emailed me this morning about hearing a Chuck-will's-widow last night at around 1:00 AM from his place on Perthshire. So tonight at around 10:00 I drove down to the T&C playing fields parking lot at the end of Meadowheath to see if I could hear one too. When I walked from my car to the edge of the creek I flushed a few deer, and then I was transfixed for a few minutes. To the north where the smaller creek joins the larger, the creek bed was full of fireflies flashing on and off. Gulf Coast Toads, Cricket Frogs, and Leopard Frogs made constant noise. And then just above the horizon I saw the biggest meteor I've ever seen streak down, trailing shades of orange and white. I half-expected to hear an explosion when it hit the ground!

I ended up spending about an hour walking to the north end of the hike-and-bike trail and back. I didn't hear any Chuck-will's-widow but I did hear the distinctive flight call of a few Upland Sandpipers flying north. (I hear a few now as I write this out on my patio.) This whole time about half a mile to the south a helicopter was circling and spotlighting the ground. When I got back to the parking lot 2 guys drove up in a pickup truck and asked if I had seen a red BMW pass through. Who knows what that was about!