Nighty Night

Friday saw us enjoying an evening on Cannock Chase with blogger and Birdforum buddies looking out for Nightjars and other strange creatures of the night. Pete kindly stepped in to drive as Max was a bit feverish and upon arrival we met up with Reg and his other half Mrs Telescope. It was too early to expect to see the nocturnal denizens of the heath, so we wandered round and saw the likes of Hobby, Buzzard, Kestrel, at least 2 Cuckoos, Linnet and Yellowhammer.

Later we met Richard and his fellow Staffs birders Andy and Jim. As dusk grew closer and the tension mounted, I wondered if we'd catch a tickable glimpse of a Nightjar in the descending gloom. We needn't have worried though; before long some members of the party picked up on not too distant churring and tracing this to source, we found an active pair of Nightjars which we were able to watch closely for a good half hour before it got dark (lifer 233). One of my birding highlights of the year - absolute magic! At one stage it looked like there were three, but it was hard to be sure in the fading light. Whilst this was happening there was added excitement when a roding Woodcock came over (lifer 234).

So thanks to everyone involved for being such great company and a good laugh. I'm sure our success with the Nightjars must be mainly down to Richard's 'hanky dance'....irresistable to female Nightjars!

Shame yesterday wasn't nearly as pleasent....heading off to Throkmorton in Worcs armed with excellent gen (cheers Mr T!) regarding Turtle Doves. Annoyingly when we got there some sort of shooting was going on nearby (perhaps clay pigeon or targets). I could hardly hear myself think, let alone try to hone in on the sublte purring of those genteel doves. Needless to say they kept well hidden, probably thought they were back in Malta, the poor beggers.

It was also boiling hot and with patience wearing thin we soon decided to abort and head off for to the pub for lunch instead. We'd had a look round the lagoon and we briefly heard a Turtle Dove amid a break in the firing and we saw a few Whitethroats, 1 Kestrel, 2 Buzzards and Stock Doves.