Did you know you’ll only ever hear one whippoorwill at a time? Papa recorded one when I was a kid, and played it back from the screened porch, and within five seconds, there was a furious bird attacking the screen. He did not recognize his own voice, and believed some other bird was encroaching on his territory.
Logically, I know that I have not been hearing the same individual bird since I was an infant, but every year, I hear the song, and I think, “the whippoorwill is back!”
Like, the one whippoorwill that ever was and ever shall be! The one I saw all those years ago, beating it’s wings on the screen! The very same!
Also, there has only been one barn owl, one scarlet tanager, one alligator snapper in the lake, and one black snake that lives in the cellar.
We get a fresh batch of peep frogs every spring, though.