The Literature of Nightjars: Thoreau's adventures with a Common Nighthawk
I'm unsure I can prove it, definitively but I think the Nightjar family is among the most influential in English literature.
Sure, there's a case to be made for other families of birds. The Corvids -- Crows, Jays, Magpies, and Ravens -- have their true believers. And who doesn't like an owl?
But from nature writing to poetry, song, and horror fiction, nightjars like Whip-poor-wills have been our fellow travelers. The book I'm writing on Whip-poor-wills is meant to uncover our journeys with this species and its family. To that end, I'm collecting all sorts of references, descriptions, and other cultural artifacts mentioning nightjars.
Lately, I've been smitten with Henry David Thoreau's writing about Common Nighthawks. A relative of Whip-poor-wills, nighthawks are the spark bird that brought me to this work on Whip-poor-wills.
Over a century and a half ago, Thoreau discovered a nighthawk nest. This is a difficult thing, indeed -- for nighthawks, like other nightjars, are incredibly well camouflaged. He returned to the nest a few times in the summer of 1871, documenting the behavior of the mother nighthawk and her young chick.
He offers an extraordinary account of rarely seen behavior.
For more, including others' photographs of nesting nighthawks and young chicks, visit my blog.
Sure, there's a case to be made for other families of birds. The Corvids -- Crows, Jays, Magpies, and Ravens -- have their true believers. And who doesn't like an owl?
But from nature writing to poetry, song, and horror fiction, nightjars like Whip-poor-wills have been our fellow travelers. The book I'm writing on Whip-poor-wills is meant to uncover our journeys with this species and its family. To that end, I'm collecting all sorts of references, descriptions, and other cultural artifacts mentioning nightjars.
Lately, I've been smitten with Henry David Thoreau's writing about Common Nighthawks. A relative of Whip-poor-wills, nighthawks are the spark bird that brought me to this work on Whip-poor-wills.
Over a century and a half ago, Thoreau discovered a nighthawk nest. This is a difficult thing, indeed -- for nighthawks, like other nightjars, are incredibly well camouflaged. He returned to the nest a few times in the summer of 1871, documenting the behavior of the mother nighthawk and her young chick.
He offers an extraordinary account of rarely seen behavior.
For more, including others' photographs of nesting nighthawks and young chicks, visit my blog.
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