robinm
Registered User
Not so much a day as an evening. It had been a hot day and although a slight breeze had blown up I thought it would be a good time for my first attempt to find nightjar this year.
I arrived well before dusk and as I pulled into the car park the last of the dog walkers was leaving - phew! A brief walk round a part of the wood was wonderfully peaceful with good numbers of singing willow warblers. My walk was also accompanied by the gentle purring of 2, maybe 3, turtle dove.
As the light began to fail I took up position in the area of the wood where I had seen the birds in previous years. The coppice is that much higher so maybe I'm in the wrong place.
As I wait a tawny owl hoots in the trees behind me and a roding woodcock grunts and squeaks its way over me several times as it makes its circuit of the wood.
At last the unmistakeable song of a nightjar starts to my right, immediately followed by another straight ahead. I move down the path closer to the second bird and wait again. After a few minutes I hear the call of another bird and then a pair appear above my head the male clapping his wings, the white wing spots clearly visible. Magic. They fly arond above me for almost a minute before flying off. Now the light is almost gone. As I head back to the car I hear 2 more males churring from a different area of coppice.
Better than sitting in front of the telly for the evening any day.
I arrived well before dusk and as I pulled into the car park the last of the dog walkers was leaving - phew! A brief walk round a part of the wood was wonderfully peaceful with good numbers of singing willow warblers. My walk was also accompanied by the gentle purring of 2, maybe 3, turtle dove.
As the light began to fail I took up position in the area of the wood where I had seen the birds in previous years. The coppice is that much higher so maybe I'm in the wrong place.
As I wait a tawny owl hoots in the trees behind me and a roding woodcock grunts and squeaks its way over me several times as it makes its circuit of the wood.
At last the unmistakeable song of a nightjar starts to my right, immediately followed by another straight ahead. I move down the path closer to the second bird and wait again. After a few minutes I hear the call of another bird and then a pair appear above my head the male clapping his wings, the white wing spots clearly visible. Magic. They fly arond above me for almost a minute before flying off. Now the light is almost gone. As I head back to the car I hear 2 more males churring from a different area of coppice.
Better than sitting in front of the telly for the evening any day.
