Nightjars

As fully paid up members of the Nightjar Fan Club my brother and I make an annual journey over to a favoured site in west Norfolk in order to catch a glimpse or two of this charismatic species.  Leaving Corby at quite a late hour we still had time to enjoy a pint or two (well I did anyway) and to admire a Sunbeam Talbot car before heading out towards our destination.

Sunset and Sunbeam.

A roadside Muntjac was the first interesting sighting, I had only a brief view from the car. Once we had parked up and started making our way towards the heath we could hear the first churring male Nightjar. This really is one of my favourite bird sounds and always evokes memories of warm summer nights and glorious sunsets. One hazard of visiting this kind of habitat is the large number of mosquitoes that harass and bother innocent birders as they seek to separate them from their blood. Happily numbers seemed reduced this time around but I suspect that I'll still wake up looking like the Elephant Man!

It's Nightjar time!

My brother picked out a distant Barn Owl as the number of churring Nightjars began to increase and we also began to hear the calls of females too. A first bird showed fleetingly but after that tantalising first taste we had regular sightings. A pair in particular showed very well, at one point the male flew as close to me as any ever have and I learned yet another of their calls, a chacking sort of call repeated for several seconds. We both enjoyed excellent views of several birds before it began to get too dark for seeing anything. Pausing for a while to enjoy the calls for a little bit longer we decided that we were not going to see anything else and headed off back home

Time to go.