Nightjar

 

Far too late before there was any action for photography 

Unexpected Nightjar

I do look for these every year on my heathland site but finding perched birds is not easy -- this passage bird on a Humber wetland site just got up from next to a path and then perched in an oak before returning to its chosen pile of wood - as the first pic shows they are nothing like as easy to pick up as the open images tend to suggest

Night birds and mosquitoes

beautiful evenings for Nightjars usually mean a lot of bites and yesterday was no exception; this pair of Long-eared Owls only seemed to have one fledged youngster still creaking -the Blackbird found the owl a long time before I did- - it was taken in the near dark at 22:34 at 16,000 ISO on the Canon 5D4 with the 400 DO2 hand held -- the Nightjars were very active

Nightjar survival against the odds

with the run of days of terrible weather since this Nightjar nest started it is heartening to see that the one chick has just about fledged -- hope it now on the wing --

a few forest shots from last week

my first nest of the season and by far the most exposed I have ever seen --

Nightjars

after 30 years of looking for Nightjars you appreciate that they are not cryptically patterned for nothing and finding them is damned hard work

Nightjars at night

the Canon 1DX goes up to ISO 51,200 -- I had never contemplated using it as obviously noise levels would be silly but as it got dark while out Nightjarring I gave it a go -- -later I had two males performing a battle royal chasing each other over  a clear fell wing clapping and coiking for 20 minutes with occasion breaks for a churr-off on the ground when they perched about 2m apart gently churring away -- the images are not what you would call great but if it had been an Egyptian at least you get something! most of the later ones of the two birds taken at 8000 ISO, 100th second hence not many are in any way sharp but you get the impression of the chase -- a privileged hour with the mysterious Nightjar -- a good article on Nightjars was in the latest Birdwatching Magazine by Ben MacDonald Birdwatching August 2015 pages 29-32