Day 30. Morning. Coon Rapids, MN

Birds have always interested me, as you may have guessed from earlier posts. Crows and jays are often seen around campgrounds and Bunker Hills is no exception. Both are excellent scroungers and thieves; in fact, jays are sometimes called camp robbers. Both birds make loud, raucous noises especially, it seems, right around daybreak.

For the last 5 mornings, jays have served as our alarm clock, screaming at us to get up and accidentally drop some food outside where they can get at it. Either they or the crows, sometimes even seagulls, check the campfire rings each morning for dropped bits of hot dogs, marshmallows, whatever.

Just after dark the last few nights, I’ve been hearing a 3-note repetitive sound and I couldn’t figure out what it was. At first I thought it might be somebody inflating a rubber mattress with an old squeaky tire pump. Last night, that possibility was eliminated when I heard the sound to the north, and then a few seconds later, to the south. No, there couldn’t be 2 guys with squeaky tire pumps that just happened to be pumping away at the same time.

“It’s gotta be a bird,” methinks. But, what kind of bird could it be? Mostly, birds hit the sack about sundown but not this bugger. I listened more closely to the noise – or song if you’re feeling quite generous. Shazam! It hit me. We looked it up in the bird book and I was right: whip-poor-will.

They’re nocturnal and their song sounds exactly like their name. Neither Trish nor I had ever heard the song before nor had we seen one; didn’t see one last night either. They’re funny looking birds about the size of a robin, with big eyes and mottled coloring similar to many owls. Apparently that coloring is Mother Nature’s approved standard for birds of the night.

Getting back to the jays, we’ve all heard the saying, ‘naked as a jay bird’. Huh? Jays appear to be no more naked than sparrows or yellow bellied sapsuckers so what’s the deal? Gotta go google.

Later. The answer is not at all satisfying: the origin of the saying in unclear. It may have to do with the fact that jays and robins are born nearly naked, while most hatchlings have a bit of down. In Great Britain, by the way, the saying is ‘naked as a robin’. Next time you’re in the UK, you can dazzle ‘em with your knowledge of local jargon – and if you’re lucky, you may not have to get naked as a jaybird to slip it into the conversation.