South Florida Night Sounds

Some highlights that I need to keep, as I leave the vehicular madness of the freeway, coming out of Corkscrew and onto the interstate and reflecting on a few notable sonic--and some visual-- memories. In the last evenings of the South Florida redolence, the most prominent and haunting sounds are the nightjars. The Chuck-will's-Widow, and the Whip-poor-will, carry on wonderfully repetitive, somewhat haunting, and distinctively unknowable sonic offerings from the edges of the dense, wild, wall of vegetation that threatens the very notion of civilization. Fitting that we only heard these sounds toward the end of our time, as the sounds of children and laughter began to fade, leaving the birds to repeat and repeat as long as they liked, haunting us, giving warning that our time is only a heartbeat, Chuck-will's widow, Chuck-will's widow, and then, the Whip-poor-Will, Whip-poor-will...For me, these sounds have an additional reverence, as my mother was enamored of these birds, with their rolling gait and lively repetitiveness, calling in their mysterious night sound, only losing their voice toward dawn. I am blessed to live on this great green ball.