Walking home from my mother's house tonight I thought, "My gosh, I think I just heard a whip- o-will." (I've no idea how to spell that name correctly and am too lazy to look it up.) This distinctive bird call brings a flood of memories when I hear it.
My Papa (maternal grandfather) imitated the calls of many birds. This was a gift he earned through hours of time in the woods hunting or farming along side of those same woods day after day.
This whip-o-will was one of his best calls. I have stood by his side as he responded to the call of this wild bird luring it closer and closer to the edge of the property. "Whip-o-will!" would come from the woods surrounding my papa's home. "Whip-o-will!" my papa would echo back in a whistle which must have seemed like an identical echo to the unsuspecting bird. I may be a bird brain at times but I have no idea what birds are thinking. There is the possibility they were onto my Papa and would volunteer to take turns calling their distinctive call, listening for my Papa's return call and move just a little closer until they were at the edge of the woods. I can see the remaining birds holding their sides in bird laughter at their precocious choice.
I said this would be short. I called back to the whip-o-will I heard tonight. Even I didn't believe myself. My papa, temporarily resurrected, stood at my side. He drew in a breath, paused a split-second and whistled a clear, spot on, reply to the whip-o-will. As I turned the corner of my yard my papa faded. Another second passed. From the woods I heard the replying call of the whip-o-will.
I miss my papa!
(I wrote the post before including the actual call of the whip-poor-will but I'll be darned if I am going back through this post and correct my spelling of the bird's name. Maybe that is why the bird did not respond to me.)
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