…that the only difference between having a great evening ringing these elusive nocturnal birds or an excellent evening is one! well we had a great evening last night located deep in heathlands of Surrey.
The weather wasn’t ideal with a light drizzle more or less all evening, these weather conditions stop the moths from flying and as this is the staple diet of Nightjars, not the best of conditions, we did however see a couple on the wing at dusk.
We split into 2 teams and proceeded to set up the nets, this was my first time at this location so I was a little more cautious with my footing at first until I got used to the terrain, our team set 2 x 60ft nets in 3 places.
So the afore-mentioned ‘one’ was caught around 22:30, we needed to catch two last night for me to have ringed my first Nightjar, of the 6 ringers, 4 had previously ringed Nightjar and 2 hadn’t and because I was the newest of the two remaining ringers I have to wait until the next visit and hope we catch one! At least I got to see a Nightjar up close, this was the first time I’d ever seen a Nightjar.
We set down about 23:30 and made our way back to the cars, we packed up and headed home.
For those interested in seeing what a Nightjar looks like:-
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/n/nightjar/index.aspx
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