BRJPaperturnReduced - Flipbook - Page 11
ing possibilities 4 and also of the fragility of it all. The very large
ivory-billed woodpecker has not been sighted in North America
since the 1940s.
One of the fields I manage is a relatively large hayfield of eighty
acres or so, and it is somewhat on the damp side. It is very remote
and I get there only once a year and there is no livestock nearby
nor are there any human visitors. It is ringed by hardwoods and
this field seems to just dwell peacefully in its loneliness producing
relatively good hay. Year after year, it is fertilized, sprayed, mowed,
raked and baled. Then it is left most of the year in its isolation.
This past spring, while I was there on my tractor, I met a new
bird. New to me at least and completely unknown to me. Generally I have small birds, mostly barn swallows, out in front of the
tractor snagging insects that the vibration and ground rumble of
the tractor stir up. Dozens may swoop in and out ten feet in front
of me 3 all day long. But this was a larger, solitary bird with white
slashes on its wings. I edged over to the woods under some shade
and (of course) looked him up on my phone. It was a common
nighthawk, related to nightjars and whip-poor-wills. And quite curiously, I read, it is not a hawk nor is it nocturnal. He seemed to
be unaffected by my relatively large diesel tractor and I immediately thought of Hudson who was somewhat surprised that
birdlife in general seemed to be