worth the loss of a night's sleep

it often takes a bit of effort to get out of bed early, meaning early here 02:00hrs, to go and do a Nightjar survey and with the recent run of poor weather I was less than optimistic that the wind would have dropped enough and it would be clear skies to allow for some sunrise photos but with little prospect of better weather in the near future I made the effort and was in the forest by 02:45 and heard a singing Nightjar immediately; it was fairly calm and only about 3/8 cloud---by 03:45 I had located 4 possibly 5 males and it was getting light but also a bit breezy--at 04:08 I was surprised to heard a male churring although it was by then quite bright--at 04:12 I picked up a male and a female Nightjar in a courtship flight with the male following the female about 1-2m off the ground, the male wing clapping every few metres as they flew in tandem around the heath; an amazing sight and in such good light unlike the typical late evening views--by 04:20 the male had settled in adense clump of young birch but he was still singing---after five minutes the song became a low churrtle and I assumed he was going to roost there--a very delicate approach and ground scan typiclaly revealed nothing and then he churtled again and was right there in front of me on a dead pine branch!--shots at 800ISO were replaced later when I went and got the tripod and returned to find him still in the same spot and very obliging--needless to say I returned to the site at 10:00 when the sun was on the perch but the Nightjar had moved---what an experience though to be able to watch and photograph this amazing bird from close range in broad daylight--click on the images for bigger pics--for the technical minded photos ISO 200 25th second at f5 EOS30D and 300mm f4 lens on tripod