Now and then, for several years I've been hearing a strange bird call around my home in Bear Valley, but I could never identify it. The call is distinctive, and I've been able to ask many good birders what it is, but haven't found the answer. I guess my mimic isn't good enough! It a clear whistled tone, two notes with the second note a higher pitch. And it's repeated over and over with a slight pause between them.

Since I always hear it at dusk or at night, I just assumed it was some kind of owl. I've listened to all the tapes of owl calls and none of them were right. 

Last weekend at the Tejon Ranch bird count I asked one of the other participants what he thought it might be. He suggested Common Poorwill without much certainty. I didn't think much of it since I've never seen a poorwill, or any goatsuckers, around Tehachapi. The checklist indicates poowills and nighthawks are rare in spring and summer.

Then this week I started hearing it again, and I just couldn't stand it! It must be the full moon. I hear him in the evening. I wake up in the middle of the night and it's still calling. What the heck is it!?

So I finally pulled up the Common Poorwill call on my iPod and sure enough, that's what it is! A mystery solved after years of frustration. Now I'll have to go out and try to see it.

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