It being that time of the year again - a warm, balmy evening in late June - and fortified by a large plate of vegetarian sausages (Tesco's best), new potatoes and a Mediterranean salad washed down with a large glass of a somewhat pretentious Anglian Water "Chlorinate" 2010, I decided to drive my son Alex over the county border into NOTTS in search of the elusive Nightjar.
I first took my son ' to see the Nightjar' (in Kent), from the age of 6 - plus his then 9 year old sister- and he and I have been going on our annual Nightjar Trip, on and off when possible ever since. The only difference now is that HE always hears and sees the bird first and He keeps an eye on ME to stop me from falling into a ditch in the half-light or from tripping over a log. But he doesn't have to hold MY hand .......yet! I believe they call it " Anno Domini " or the passage of years. However, I can still drive HIM and He can't remember the way.
We arrived at our (2009) stakeout at Budby c 9.00pm, met up by chance with one knowledgeable local birder and settled down to wait.
Churring started at 9.40 and the first bird to show did so at 10.20, by which time the local mosquito horde had given up and retired for the night. 3 separate birds continued churring virtually non-stop - one or another - until we left the site at 11.15pm. We'd had occasional views, accompanied by wing-clapping and a few " cuik, cuik " calls. Our final view as we left was of one bird in a classic pose - silhouetted nearby churring away in the half-light/quarter-light along the top bough of a stunted dead tree.
We arrived back at BBH soon after midnight, by which time my wife had finished another of her 350 or so free public domain books from Google on her handheld e-Reader ( one of the wonders of modern technology ), while my son and I had been enjoying one of the wonders of modern nature.
Regards,
Freddy