Joann Merritt's Essays

The Midnight Midnats
Summer, 1985

Come along on an enjoyable late night trip with some Midnats. It w3as 8:30 p.m. June 2nd, 1985 when we set up CAMP. CAMP - that’s the Crumley’s, Andersons, Merritts and Parkers. It was a spur of the minute outing. The Andersons had a tailgate picnic and George said he brought cold drinks for all of us but forgot them in all the exciting activities of the night. Marjorie’s sister, Hildegarde, was a welcome guest, and most of the things she saw and heard were a first for her, including seeing a Jack Rabbit with his long pink ears.

Midnat Pat Newmeyer (now at Kingwood, Texas) always said “Mother Nature never disappoints you” and this particular night was no exception to that idea. We positioned ourselves in comfortable lawn chairs near the water tank at Buchanan to await the twilight arrival of a Common Poorwill. We watched a beautiful sunset as the Common Nighthawks swooped in low for water and soared high for bugs. Songbirds were still serenading us as the full moon rose. Suddenly the moon was obscured by clouds, thunder boomed and rumbled, lightning flashed all around us and a few light sprinkles of rain fell. A family of coyotes howled not far to the south. At 9:20 P.M. a Poorwill came softly flying in. He glided low over the tank like a Nighthawk but nobody could be certain if he was getting a drink or just catching bugs, but later Allen told us they drink that way. In the next 20 minutes he circled in and out two more times, never calling his name. We were hoping he would land on a bare spot of ground about ten feet from our chairs as he had done the two previous nights, but no luck. Don and I heard a faint “poor will, poor will” off in the distance, so thinking the show was over, we broke CAMP. The Parkers returned to town, missing an excellent olio performance.

We drove along the caliche road, stopped, looked and listened for Poorwills. We saw a Poorwill’s red eyes reflected in the headlights of the pickup. With the light on him he remained perfectly still while cameras rolled and clicked just a few feet away. Another Poorwill fluttered in the shin oak close by and then they both disappeared into the darkness. This time the show was really over, it was late and time to go home.

The only difficult part of the night was having to sit still and not talk, but according to Burr that’s why we saw and heard so many things!

Pat, you can see Mother Nature did not disappoint us and we wish you & Jim could have been there. Midnats can enjoy many different activities in the summer when migration is over. John Cys’ interest in bird behavior & nesting has provided new birding experiences for many Midnats. Come join us!