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Nightjar

Nightjar + Updates

Some good news, some bad news, such is the nature of nest monitoring. In this woodland I have 7 pairs, but I’ve only managed time to find 3 nests so far. 2 of these nests are doing great, both with two chicks and both getting bigger each day, but as the nest gets smell from droppings from both the parents and young, it starts to attract predators, and the worse happened for my 3rd pair that seemed to get their chicks to a decent age, but the nest was found empty, with just a few chick feathers that were broken off. I didn’t have a camera on this nest so it’s difficult to know what the cause was, but this pair failed their first clutch last year also and managed to start again with their second clutch fledging one chick. Below is a male that I’ve come to call Midnight, as he’s particularly dark compared to my other males. Males are usually darker than females, but this guy takes it to another level. He’s the male of the failed pair, so is now sticking close to the female again where-ever she may go, so that they can start over. He’s even roosting on Rocks which makes sense now the nights are getting cooler as that extra warmth sitting on a rock that’s been baking in the sun all day will most certainly give them an extra boost of energy at sundown.

I don’t usually photograph birds on the nest, but I've been getting requests to see the chicks on Facebook so here we go. There are two showing in the photo, but the second is much harder to spot. They’re just getting too big to stay underneath Mum, and it this time lines up perfectly with their adult plumage coming into play, so they are becoming less dependant on mothers superior camouflage.

We’re so lucky in Gwent to have such a variety of fauna and flora and I don’t appreciate it half as much as I should whilst I’m out and about. Usually too busy to stop and observe the ground, especially when you’re focuses on Nightjar, you get a little tunnel vision, but it’s surprising what you do find if you just set aside a bit of time. There are some species that you just need to make the time for, like the Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies in upland Gwent ponds, if you don’t look, you won’t find them, but there are other species that you just need to get lucky with, and luck was on our side as a Silver-washed Fritillary was sapping moisture and minerals from a clay patch right next to the car along Albion road, pontypool.

Sound Recording

I’ll start with a mystery, and if you do have an idea of what this begging sound might be, please get in touch as I’ve suspected many things but cannot find any reference material that matches.

There were a few Woodcock roding so I thought it might be a begging chick but I’m honestly not convinced it’s even a bird at this rate. This is the first decent recording I’ve got of a roding Woodcock but I’ll try to improve on this next season as it’s a very cool sound.

The star of the show was of course this beautiful performance off this Male Nightjar that does have a very distinctive song, where the inhale section of the song, also described as the minor phrase, is quite low pitched in comparison to its major phrase, making him identifiable, even by ear, so long as you know what you’re listening out for.

Throughout the season I have been observing Goshawks nearby that have been taking food back and forth, so I suspected at the time they were nesting quite close but till now I’ve kept my distance as I’m not scheduled and I have no interest in disturbing them, but in the last few weeks the chicks have fledged and are venturing much further away from the nest site, so it was a matter of time walking the woodland paths that I eventually came within reach of my recording gear. This is why I love sound recording with a Telinga Dish, as unlike photography, you don’t actually need to see the bird to appreciate it, which allows you to appreciate wildlife from a much greater distance.

Nocmig

I’ll end with a few updates from my Nocmig recordings, which have just started to pick up again as birds are starting their autumn migration.

So far I’ve had Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher and a few morning extra’s in the form of Swift, Linnet and Raven, which I don’t usually get here.

Babies!

So I know everyone loves to follow the Osprey projects around the Uk because of the live cams ect, but also because the birds are identifiable so people can really track their progress. Thousands of people watch avidly and know them all by name by now, and I know most pragmatic naturalists are probably cringing right about now, but I do think that in giving individuals names, that people start to realise that these birds are unique, and aren’t just carbon copies of each other. We all have individual characteristics and it’s no different with wildlife. An example of this can be seen below, as last year I found a Male Nightjar that would roost on rocks instead of the typical logs, but only when the weather was bad or it was due to rain. I have a few reasons why I think he would prefer a rock in these circumstances. Rocks don’t sway in the wind, the don’t attract Wood Ants, and should any sun make an appearance, the Rock will warm up. There may be no reason what so ever and whatever the reason, this is the only Nightjar in the area that I’ve documented doing this year on year.
As a result, I’ve come to name him Rocky, and his sandy female Pebbles.

I’ve only found two nests so far in this woodland, with another 4 to go but both females have managed to hatch an egg on the same day, so it’ll be interesting to see how they both develop.
The other pair have chosen the burnt habitat and I’ve come to name them Ash and Tinder. I think this pair is a young pair, as the spot she has chosen to lay her eggs is, well, questionable to say the least. I’ll keep you informed of their progress this season but anything could happen with lots of predators in the area.

One thing I am keeping an eye on is the weather as we’ve gone from 30c heatwave to plummeting temps with strong winds and rain. Not so great for breeding birds, but I did take some of the storms as an opportunity to record some rain storms. If you suffer with mental health issues like myself, you might find listening to these before you sleep really helpful. Stick the headphones on and relax.

Whilst we are on sound, on one of my nocturnal monitoring sessions with the Nightjar I come across a displaying Snipe. This sound is worth talking about, as if you didn’t know already, this sound is produced mechanically. It’s referred to as ‘Drumming’ as the sound is produced during a flight display, where the tail feathers are stiffened and spread out in such a way that the outer feathers catch the air and produce this incredible sound. I heard it for the first time this spring on the Gwent Levels, but this was the first time I’ve heard such a long extended performance.

I’ll leave you with a few ‘arty’ shots of Hard Ferns, Large Skipper and an Emperor Dragonfly on a short social distancing walk with Lee Gregory. Lee is such an asset to Gwent, his natural history knowledge is incredible and he’s such a nice guy! Hopefully when this lockdown is behind us we can get out more often.

Welcomed Rain

The thinking at the start of this pandemic was, that nature would finally get the break that it deserves, with less air, water and noise pollution and some areas being left alone as people aren’t able to get to them to cause disturbance, such as upland ground breeding birds. Grass has been left to grow, so wild flowers have been given a chance to grow also, giving insects the boost they need. It hasn’t all been positive however, as during this lockdown we have seen a rise in ‘wild’ fires, caused by people of all ages but mostly children and young adults, wether on purpose or by accident and neglect of putting camping fires our disposable BBQ’s out properly. Disposal of fag ends also cause more wild fires than people realise, as in dry heat such as what we’ve been having for over a month now, all it takes is that little bit of help in the right habitat and it becomes a huge problem. For ground nesting birds, it’s a disaster. I monitor several Nightjar territories, many of which are currently black following fires. All the heather that was once present is gone, leaving charred sticks but thankfully, the bracken has still sprouted thru giving them a little bit of cover. This Male Nightjar is roosting on the only part of the branch that wasn’t burnt, which makes you wonder if it sat their whilst the fire burnt around him. It’s a sad thought when you think of all the animals, reptiles, insects and mammals that weren’t able to get away from the fire in time.

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Some Males have avoided ground roosting entirely and have taken to the tree’s instead. They are a little more vulnerable to predators in the tree’s so it’s not the best solution but at-least the canopy gives them a little shade in the heat of the day.

Nightjar Sunset Tight-SR1A3955 copy.jpg

This tree roosting Male put on a good performance after the sun dropped. Singing for so long my arm was ready to drop off holding the parabolic setup. I had hoped he would give a nice clapping performance at the end of this 5 minute bout but nope, he just stopped singing as he got distracted by a moth.

Once the female was up however he resumed to his short performances, ending each bout with a clapping bubbling displaying which is by far my favourite part of their song. If the female was happy with the performance they’ll mate either on a close perch or even on the ground.

As you’ll know by now I also have a fascination with mimicking birds and I’ve noted quite a lot of unique ones lately. The Song Thrush I hear on the gwent levels coastline usually have wader calls in their song, usually loud birds like Curlew, Oystercatcher or Whimbrel, and this is pretty standard across the levels, showing generations of local breeders that are faithful to at-least this sort of habitat on the coast.
In contrast to this, my semi-upland sites have been found to mimic anything from Nuthatch, Green Woodpeckers and to add to that list, Tawny Owl and Nightjar!
Here is a typical Tawny Owl ‘Kivvik’ call and below is a section of a Song Thrushes song, mimicking perfectly this Kivvik call.

The same bird moments later started mimicking a male Nightjar Call! Which would explain why it’s been so difficult to find them at dusk lately lol as it’s not just one Song Thrush doing this either, there’s three or four in that area that have the same phrases.

On the note of odd singers, I keep hearing this aberrant Willow Warbler song in the same area, which was the very bird that sparked a conversation about Iberian Chiffchaff. This bird has the start notes of a Willow Warbler, but the delivery expected of a Chiffchaff.

I’m still yet to get a pic of this bird but it does look to have pale legs so most certainly an aberrant Willow Warbler.

I’ll leave you with a closeup portrait of this Male Nightjar. Let’s hope the recent rain will prevent any further fires from causing anymore hinderance to their breeding season.

Weird and Wonderful

Photo

Breeding season is by far the busiest time of year for me. I wish my body could just run on nothing so that I could spend every second I could outdoors, but with nothing booked in today and a nice red ‘binocular strap’ sunburn on the back of my neck, I spend the day indoors to catch up on invoicing and general admin work. This also gives me the time to write this blog and catch you up on the weird and wonderful things I’ve been seeing on my surveys or in my garden. Caterpillars can be quite challenging to ID and I’ve photographed a few lately that remain un-identified. Usually the moths are the hardest as there are quite a few that are very similar looking, and there’s just so many of them!. I found my first Western Bee-fly which is a nationally scarce Bee-fly that appears to be quite numerous this year. I found another case of ‘Zombie Fungus’ which is a very strange phenomenon where a fly picks up spores on its skin, that burrow into their body to develop and once developed enough, will induce a chemical that takes over the flies brain! The fly then is possessed by the fungus, that causes it to climb a tall plant (called summiting), from which it is then forced to secrete a glue like substance from its mouth. Only then will the fungus kill the fly by locking up all its joints and limbs, so the wings point to the sky and their legs lock onto the stem. It’s at this stage that the fungus can use all of the flies nutrients, growing out from the body and releasing spores into the air, ready for the cycle to start all over again. It’s literally the thing of nightmares! The Bagworm Moth Larvae was also a good reminder of natures architectural genius, as the larvae uses sticks or reeds of a certain quality to build a safe home that’s completely unappealing to any predator looking to eat them. Some of the shapes they build, truly are incredible. Take a look here for some examples on google.

It’s been a whole year since I found my first roosting Nightjar. It was a special moment after many years of research, as yomping around breeding habitat with no experience is just out of the question. If you think you can just rock up and expect to find one roosting in the day, you’ll go home very disappointed. There’s a reason why these birds are so successful. If you flush one in an attempt to find one, you WILL NOT see them again, as they won’t roost there again. Everybody I’ve met who study Nightjar, do so because they have the utmost enthusiasm and passion for the species and it’s safe to say, I’m in it for life. On that note, below is that very first Nightjar I found in may 2019, which happened to be a female who favoured tree stumps. The females are taking a while to come back this year, but it was even more special that my first Nightjar of 2020 was that exact same female, using her favourite tree stumps again. The more you learn about these birds, the more you realise that they are just individuals, with their individual preferences in life, just like us.

As she had just turned up the night before, she’s already being pestered by the local Males and this isn’t the same Male she paired up with last year, but he was roosting 2 meters away from her, just so he knows where she is once it gets dark enough, so they can continue ‘business’. I hope they have a good year this year, for some reason many females are yet to return, so the Males are a bit lost at present.

Male Nightjar

Sound

Back to sound! (Here’s where most people bow out). Recording mammals can be quite difficult as they’re not always vocal. I’ve had numerous encounters with Weasels for instance and till today I’ve never heard one before! I presume it has a nest somewhere. I couldn’t even see the blighter but this sound was unmistakable.

The same night I had an encounter with two Tawny Owls, that were making all sorts of weird sounds, but recorded here at the typical Kivvik sounds. You may even have one near you? With this hot weather, now’s a good time to listen in bed with the window wide open.

I’ve also added another birdsong to my video list. The Chaffinch is Britain’s most common finch, but till now I’ve not really appreciated it enough. I’m sure their success has everything todo with that powerful bill, which is very versatile in what it can achieve. Their song might be repetitive but listen with a good pair of headphones and the tone is just stunning. It has a well-rounded tone but with really crisp articulation. That and it’s very loud!

Nocmig

Not much to report on the nocturnal migration recordings but I did get a wave of flycatcher like calls that I need to ID. They must be Spotted Flycatchers this time of year but I don’t think the recordings are detailed enough to rule out Pied Flycatcher.

And finally, something to laugh about. I had lots of messages last night, congratulating me on getting one of my images onto the Springwatch program lol. Which was news to me, as I can’t ever remember being asked for permission to use any of my images, so I was a little angry at first.. but then I found out it was Iolo Williams that presented it, so I’ll let him off beings he’s Welsh, and of course, I remembered I added the picture to Springwatches Flickr group, which does state they’re allowed to use any images added to the group for the program, so long as they credit the photographer, which they did. It’s a shame now though everybody thinks there’s a bird called Gavin Vella!! Could have been a worse bird though lets be fair :)

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Here’s the original image for you to enjoy :) Taken under license in 2019.

Calm Before The Storm

Summer is coming to a close with wet and windy breaking up whats left of those long drawn out days. It’s probably a little early to talk about autumn, but for me, it feels so far away from spring already. I was reminded of this while watching one of my Nightjar chicks fledging this week, both of which are nowhere to be found now, so I suspect they’ve travelled to more suitable feeding grounds while preparing for the big fly back to Africa!. Here’s a pic of the Chick before fledging. I think their first clutch failed, or they were just very late breeding this year. The parents are the two birds photographed in my last blog here. Look how short his/her bill is! Pretty adorable.

While we’re on Migration. I was sent this by my friend Craig last week. For those that wonder how these birds migrate over vast oceans, well, sometimes they do need a rest! And what better way todo that than on a big quiet ship deck? Check these birds out! Some really rare stuff too but the best by far is at the end.

Tomorrow we’re due for another storm, and today you could feel the calm before the storm as it was beautiful and really low wind! It’s not very often that I can take the windshield off around the coastline but conditions were perfect today so I tried to capture a Long-winged Conehead with the rising ride in the background.
As our Coneheads reach to almost the limitations of our hearing range, I’ve slowed the recording down slightly so you can appreciate the quality more but it’s not too slow that you can’t hear the sea background.

Long-wined Conehead

Birthday on Skomer

This week has been a bit overwhelming. For my 30th Birthday my loved ones organised a trip to Skomer Island, knowing that I’ve failed in previous years to get on due to it being so busy at peak season. I wasn’t going to let that happen again, so Jodie and I arrived at 5am. People didn’t start turning up till around 6:30-7 and even then, only around 20-30 people cued up by 8:30, so there wasn’t any need to get up that early. Either way, I’m glad I was, because I got to watch thousands of Manx Shearwaters heading towards Skomer to start the day.

It was my first time on the island so we spent most of the time roaming the shoreline, sussing out where everything was. I should have just spent more time with the Puffins but either way, it’s a little late in the year now so there weren’t many left feeding chicks. The hours flew by quickly and before we knew it, we were being waved off by a Seal waiting in the harbour. It was a fantastic experience, I’ll most certainly make the effort a bit earlier on in the season next year, maybe even organise a few trips as it’s so worth the effort!

Prior to my Skomer trip I had another daytime session on one of my more elusive males that I’ve now named ‘Crossbill’ as his upper mandible slightly curves left. Below him is a pic of his female that I haven’t seen for quite some time, presumably because she’s now sat on eggs or chicks. I did visit a couple nights in a row and I can confirm a new spot where she’s being particularly protective over so another daytime trip is due to confirm.

I assume his female is the same one, in which case, this is her below, just 2 feet from where I found him roosting.

Before the Rain

Spring might have been a wet one, but it’s been great so far this summer for bugs. I usually turn my attention to bugs this time of year as some species have a small window of opportunity before they all disappear again till next year. If you like Grasshoppers and Crickets, it’s worth visiting the north side of Llandegfedd as the meadows are alive with Roesel’s, Dark, Oak & Speckled Bush-crickets, Green, Meadow, Field and Mottled Grasshoppers, Long & Short-winged Coneheads and even Ground Hoppers with more to discover I’m sure.
As you know I like to record the sounds of nature, but as many people cannot hear some species of Grasshopper as they’re too high pitched, I’ve started a project that aims to record as many different species of Grasshopper / Cricket as possible and to slow those recordings down so that you can listen to the finer detail of each and every stroke of the wing cases. It’s not for everyone, but i find stuff like this fascinating as it reveals frequencies that you wouldn’t otherwise hear. Listen back to these insects in slow-motion helps you enter their world for a moment and also highlights how important it is for us to start consider the environmental impact our noise pollution has on species that are dependant on sound in order to reproduce.

I tend not to go anywhere simply for the walk these days, partly because I can’t walk far at the moment as I have gall-stones that are playing havoc, but also because I only walk 2 minutes before spotting something interesting to photograph, record or just appreciate. It doesn’t do anything for my fitness levels this way but I’ve made so much luck this way, slowly walking through the landscape, trying to appreciate everything that I see. If you do this, you’ll be rewarded more and more, and this was evident when I was accompanied by a Stoat that was quite shy, but I would have easily missed it if I was walking with the intent to walk. If you want to see things, you need to slow right down.

A Week for Welsh Bugs!

I’m back on the Nightjar, this time at a completely different location, just to switch things up a bit . So far I have 3 pairs , including this Male that’s switching his roost up every night but does come back to the same ones every now and again. Each roost he uses though is pretty well covered so I won’t be trying to get close photographs of this one, which does not matter to me at all, as once you’ve spent as much time as I have researching them, just finding one without disturbing them gives you such a great sense of achievement and most of the time I just rock up, look at them through my bins from a distance and go straight home.

Male Nightjar

The great thing about searching for Nightjar, it requires similar searching methods to how you would search for rare insects, paying great attention to the small details. I always bring my macro lens with me and this week, I’m so glad that I did, as not only has it been fun photographing a variety of different species in beautiful sunshine, every now and again you stumble upon a gem!

A short walk along the Gwent Levels and upon arriving back at the car, I noticed a very small Hoverfly that was so brightly marked I thought it was a wasp. It just to happened to be a member of the Chrysotoxum family which are ‘wasp mimics’ and if it weren’t for the featherlight flight pattern, it would have had me fooled!.
I’m not going to pretend like I knew what it was in the field, as I didn’t. All I knew was, I’ve never seen one of these before, as I do have a photographic memory. I managed to snap a few different photo angles, trying to get the full back pattern and the antenna which are usually key features in identifying hoverflies. There are around 280 different species of Hoverfly in the Uk, some of which are isolated populations in specialist habitats. In the case of Chrysotoxum, they are described as being ‘The Difficult Five’ as they are very similar and usually requires close examination by an expert in order to ID them. Luckily for me I always take multiple angled pictures when photographing insects as I’ve learned the hard way that it’s not always possible to ID via a photograph. This is why so many bug specialists take home life samples to study under a microscope.
As soon as I got home I looked in my Hoverfly book which I downloaded on my phone, it’s called ‘Britains Hoverflies’ and it’s written by Stuart Ball & Roger Morris. The book was great, and the description / images provided me with enough detail to rule out a few species straight away and it was looking good to be Chrysotoxum Verralli. This is still new territory for me though, so I went straight to my ‘bug friend’ Liam Olds, who has a vast amount of bug knowledge and is very open to receiving the odd ID request from me, which I’m truly grateful for! He quickly checked for key features and as I suspected, it looked good for Chrysotoxum verralli, but he requested I still ran it by the Uk Hoverflies facebook group to be 100% sure, as if it was C.Verralli, it would be a first record for Wales!

The stakes just went up! so I popped all my pics on the facebook group and who should comment, but the co-author of my Hoverfly book! Roger Morris himself! and confirmed that it is indeed Chrysotoxum verralli. I couldn’t have had a better person to confirm that for me so I’m chuffed to bits.

Chrysotoxum Verralli

I shouldn’t get too excited though, as this actually happens quite a lot. In the same week, Martin Bell discovered a Sandrunner Shieldbug in Slade Wood which is another first for Wales! The truth is, there’s probably a lot more out there that we simply have not discovered yet and I am living proof that anybody, no matter how much experience you have, can discover something new, if you just slow down and pay attention to the details.

Gwent Naturalists

If you’re on Facebook and live in Gwent, you might be interested to join a new group called Gwent Naturalists.

It’s an extension of the Gwent Birders group that has over 600 members so far and every now and again we get questions about butterflies, moths, dragonflies and flowers, which is fine, but it made me realise that we could do with a group that covers more taxonomic groups.

We’re very lucky in gwent to have dedicated naturalists that have spent a life-time studying nature in their respective field. Whether it’s spiders, slime moulds, mosses, micro moths, birds, bats, reptiles, flowers, bees, beetles, you name it, there is somebody out there with the knowledge.
This isn’t to take away from the existing - South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre group - which I still highly recommend you join.

The Gwent Naturalists group isn’t just a place to share photos and ask for ID’s, I hope that we can use it to discuss conservation topics in our area, organise field events, and generally work together to help encapsulate our knowledge and work together towards a common goal.


My second pair of Nightjars were victim of an egg thief just two days from hatching, so I’m giving them plenty of space as they choose their second location for clutch 2, which is so far looking to be a much wiser choice, in a clear-fell that has much more cover, making the nest less exposed. I did wonder if their first choice was a good one, as it wasn’t far from a major dog walking route, and they did get quite a few close fly-bys from Jays and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, but the list of predators for ground nesting birds is huge, so it’s lucky they’ve adapted to this by not putting all their eggs in one basket, having a second clutch as a backup plan should the first choice go wrong. With the hot weather though, I’ve turned my attention to the vast amount of insects that are now at peak.

I did note 3 Silver-washed Fritillaries on the wing this week at a local woodland which could be a good sign that this species is spreading out. I usually go to the Forest of Dean to get my Silver-washed fix but instead of doing that I’m going to make more of an effort this year to find them on my doorstep. I’ll leave you with this incredibly out of focus, cropped image :D

Shape Conforming

I hope you’re not getting tired of hearing about Nightjar but honestly I don’t care haha. Spending time with one species, learning more about their characteristics and behaviour is what I love and it’s the only way you’ll ever get a chance of photographing this species in the day. I’m now on my 4th pair and my 7th individual (yet to locate the female of the 4th pair). I find it interesting that each pair has chosen a different type of habitat, or at-least the same habitat at different stages.

  1. 3-4 Year Old clear-fell, mostly small-medium sized trees

  2. 1 year old clear-fell, only bracken, grass.

  3. 3 year old clear-fell, mostly grassland, bracken and heath

  4. 3 year old clear-fell, totally rocky habitat with bracken between.

It goes to show how versatile they are, so long as there is suitable habitat around them for moths, they’ll roost almost anywhere there’s suitable cover.
The pair that’s chosen the rocky habitat is the one that I’m most interested in, as he’s also choosing to roost on rocks, rather than logs/sticks. If you look closely, even the shape of his back appears to match the shape of the rock. I wonder if this is strategic? Shape conforming is common amongst species that rely on camouflage to survive and they do appear to match their chosen roost spot. If on the end of a log, they’ll sit tall, short, tail town as if they’re part of the end of that log. If they sit across a stick, they’ll sit in the same direction and flatten themselves out.

As a contrast, here’s the female of pair number 3 showing that typical flattened out pose that matches the long shape of a stick. I loved this chosen roost spot, but it’s doubtful she’ll use it again though as she looks ready to burst. I’m surprised she hasn’t laid yet. Maybe she has and her first clutch failed? I hope that isn’t the case.

I’ve also been studying their vocalisations but I’ve needed a few years worth of field recordings on Nightjar, in order to confirm a theory that you can identify individual males by their song. The way you would do this is to work out the average BPM, length of phrases and also the frequency of both exhale and inhale.
I’ve collected so far at-least 6 different males, though I’ve focused on returning to the same territory for the last 2 years in the hope to confirm it with one individual male. So far it looks like I can confirm this theory, as I’m finding only a 0.8 difference between the BPM recorded in 2017 to present day. A couple more years worth of recording Males and I should be able to give more weight to this theory.
The analysis is actually pretty easy and could even be done in the field so long as you had a laptop to return to. I’ll publish more details about my methods at the end of the season.

Nightjar Identification