An evening with Nightjars

I had been in Tunstall Forest not far from my home one evening trying to photograph Fallow Deer coming out on the edge of the forest. On my way home at dusk, I decided to just stop off at a clearing to listen to the Nightjars "churring". In a relatively small area, I could hear four or five male Nightjars calling and displaying with the odd wing clap.

For the next couple of evenings I kept going back just to listen and observe. It became quite clear that one male in particular had three favourite perches from which to churr from. But one in particular grabbed my interest. It was on a firebreak and was only about eight feet high. So I made my plans.

The next evening I was back and a quick look at the perch found a perfect position for me to lay. It was under a Birch Tree on top of the firebreak and only about fifteen metres away and almost at the same height as the perch. I got set and as comfortable as I could and waited. I had set the camera low on the tripod so as to highlight the perch against the sky. This was a must as if the bird turned up late, I would still be able to focus on the perch against the sky.

Having said that I have learnt over the years that you can almost set your watch by the first Nightjars calling and getting on the wing. They had been appearing at about 9:20 each evening. I looked at my watch as it turned 9:20 and bang on cue the first Nightjar started to churr followed immediately by another!

It was this second bird I was really interested in, as I was sure he was the male that was useing the perch that was already pre-focused in the camera lens. And then he was there! Straight onto the perch! I was luckily already anticipating this so did not have to move only to fire off the shutter and dial in different settings while I took the pictures.

He stayed on the perch for a couple of minutes before going off displaying. Unfortunately he then chose a different perch to churr from and it just got to dark for pictures. So I watched him for a while through the binoculars and then came away. When I had a look at the images back home I was very pleased for a first time effort but felt I could improve on the close up shots.

But alas it was not to be. The weather changed and despite going back three or four more times the male was favouring one of his other perches which was high up on the side of a Scots Pine. It was not my presence that had caused this, as at no point did he ever know I was just metres away taking pictures. Its just the way it goes. But never mind as I will be back to try again. I will just have to wait a year, thats all!!!