Nightjars

Every year my brother and I take a trip over to Norfolk to catch up with Nightjars and last night ( the 20th) we journeyed over there in the company of one of his old school mates. With the afternoon thunder storms having moved off it was nice and clear when we arrived leaving us hopeful of a good evening's watching.

Here be Nightjars.

A male gave a brief churr just after quarter to nine but it was some time later before the main show began. Whilst waiting for the Nightjars to get active I heard a Grasshopper reeling distantly but there wasn't much else to keep us occupied other than a bit of midge swatting, the pesky little blighters are always a pain on such evenings! Thankfully the Nightjars started a bit earlier than on some previous visits and we were treated to quite a performance.

Let the show commence.

First off several males began to churr and from then it wasn't long before we heard the first flight calls and saw our first views. With it still being quite light we could actually see some colours on these early birds and could also pick out a bird that landed in a nearby pine tree. Other views followed and we had several birds pass closely by. Another bird hunted above the sky line and we were treated to an excellent display of aerial dexterity as it swooped, hawked and hovered at one point. After quite a period of sustained activity we decided to leave while we could still make out the numerous cow pats in the gathering night, nobody wants to scrape that off the carpet in the car!