Note
Mapped some at Diamond Bay, several interesting bird encounters, and ran intervals to finish up my outdoors activities for the day. Seasonally quite cool and as pleasant as could be. The dirt roads are powder dry and the ATVs and buggy vehicles (whatever they are called) were kicking up impressive clouds of dust.
The first bird encounter was scaring a nighthawk off its nest. Well, nest is quite a stretch, since they simply lay their eggs directly on the ground. And, I can't be 100% sure it was a nighthawk. The bird *looked* like a nighthawk and acted exactly like a nighthawk should act when scared off its eggs, and I'm not aware of anything else that really looks like a nighthawk. And yet, the eggs were almost pure white; it's the second time (happened once last year, too) I've seen white eggs from what I thought was a nighthawk. The eggs should be speckled, and their coloration makes them all but impossible to spot unless you very carefully mark with you eyes exactly where the parent bird gets from. They're *really* hard to spot. So what could this be if not a nighthawk? I have no idea.
Bird number two was heard, not seen. It had a call that was more similar to that of a bobwhite than anything else, a 2 note call with the second note a full step up from the first note, and the call repeated 4-5 times. I've never heard it before around here, so it quite took me aback. I have no idea what it could have been.
Bird number three was a woodcock, also--I am almost positive--getting up off a nest, but I was not able to locate the nest (or chicks, if they weren't in a nest) despite seeing pretty closely where the bird got up from. At first I wasn't even sure it was a woodcock, because I thought (wrongly) they were upland birds. But it sure looked like one, and when I checked information back home I realized that's what it had been.
Also found the first deer sheds I've come across this year.
Mosquitoes were not bad at all--just one or two occasionally buzzing around--and if they're not bad by now up in the hills, then this probably will go down as a mosquito light year. Down in the valley it's quite different and without spraying and other control measures, it would not be much fun to be walking around in town, not even in the middle of the day.
edit: mystery solved! It was a poorwill and poorwill eggs I saw, and that was also the bird I heard.