A Private Tour this evening, looking for owls and Nightjars. There had been some thundery showers in the morning, but these had passed through, the sky had cleared and the wind had dropped, even if it was a bit cooler tonight than of late. It looked like a good evening to be out.
Our first target for the evening was Little Owl. We drove round via one site, but there was no sign of the birds on the ruined barns where they like to sit. There were no Little Owls either at first at the second site we tried. We stopped here anyway and, having scanned from the road, had a walk down along a footpath, which took us round to the back of the farm buildings.
It was a pleasant walk. There were lots of Brown Hares in fields, always nice to see. A Stock Dove perched on the roof of a barn next to a Woodpigeon for comparison and an Oystercatcher seemed to be enjoying a similar vantage point on the ridge of one roof. A large flock of Jackdaws and Rooks had started to gather in a recently cut wheat field, before heading off to roost. A Yellowhammer was singing from an overturned potato crate in the corner of a field. But there was no sign of a Little Owl anywhere.
We had a schedule to keep so we couldn’t stay here any longer. As we got back to the car, we glanced over to the buildings opposite where we had parked, which we had scanned when we first arrived, and there was a Little Owl on the roof. It had come out to bask in evening sun.
Little Owl – basking in the evening sunshine
After a good look at the Little Owl through the scope, we moved on and made our way down to the coast. We drove round past some of meadows where Barn Owls regularly hunt, but we couldn’t see any out yet. So we parked and walked down along the seawall to scan the marshes. Swifts and House Martins were twittering overhead. We could hear Bearded Tits in the reeds, and looked across to see several perched up nicely in the tops. We got a good look at them in the scope. A Marsh Harrier circled distantly over marshes.
The first Barn Owl of the evening appeared, flying over the reeds behind some bushes where there is a Barn Owl box, but it was rather distant. Then we spotted a second, out hunting over the marshes. We couldn’t see the entrance to the box from where we were standing and we were looking straight into the setting sun, but we just could see some movement on the platform on the front of the box and a Barn Owl dropped out and down behind the reeds out of view. The young Barn Owls here must be near to fledging now.
One of the Barn Owls out hunting caught a vole and flew back towards the box. We thought it might be heading back to feed the youngsters, but it landed on post instead and ate it. We watched it in the scope, before it flew back and continued hunting along the bank. It started making its way towards us and this time we got closer views, before it turned again and headed off other way.
It was time to think about heading up to the heath now – we had a date with some Nightjars! As we turned to head back to the car, we could see a white shape behind the railings by the road behind us, back near to where we had parked. Another Barn Owl. We had a quick look through binoculars then made our way quickly back, hoping to get a better view of it from back at the car, but just at that moment a very noisy motorbike came along the road and flushed it. We watched as it resumed hunting over the meadow on the other side of the road.
Barn Owl – one of several we saw out hunting this evening
It was already dusk by the time we got up to the heath, and walked out into the middle of the gorse and heather. A Tawny Owl called from the trees. We didn’t have to wait long before the first Nightjar called and, after a couple more minutes, it flew high out over the tops of the trees, turned and dropped down onto a dead branch on the front edge close to where we were standing. It perched there for some time, silent, where we could get a great look at it in the scope.
Nightjar – perched nicely on a branch in front of us
The Nightjars were slow to start churring this evening – perhaps because it was a bit cooler tonight. Eventually one started up over the other side of the heath. The male we were watching then flew out from the trees and disappeared out over the heather behind us. Given that, we were surprised to hear a quick burst of churring still coming from the trees in front of us. The first male flew back in and a second male Nightjar promptly flew out of the trees. The two of them perched on the dead branches together just a metre or so apart. There was clearly a minor territorial dispute, as they spread their tails and started turning from side to side where they were perched, flashing their white tail patches.
One of the male Nightjars flew off across heath again and the other stayed perched for a while, where we got a very prolonged look at it through the scope. It made a couple of sallies out, short display flights over our heads and past us, with exaggerated wing beats, and tail spread flashing its white corners, before flying back to its perch in the trees. After one of these sallies, it flew into the trees and we could hear it wing clapping, before disappearing into another leafy oak where it started churring again. A female Nigthjar then appeared, lacking the white wing and tail patches of the male, and started flying low in and out of the trees hunting. At one point it came out over the edge of the heath and right over our heads. Great views.
When this male Nightjar finally went quiet, we walked a short distance across the heath into the territory of another. We could hear it now, churring from somewhere in an oak tree out in the middle. We listened to it for a while in the distance, before it took off – we could hear it wing clapping as it did so. We couldn’t see it flying with the light starting to fade now, but it flew in and landed on one of its favourite perches, in an oak close to us. We watched it churring, silhouetted against the last of the light on a bare branch. Between bouts of churring, it flew little sallies out from its perch, hawking for insects.
It was a lovely way to end the evening. Eventually it flew back away from us and disappeared into the night. We walked back to the car, listening to another two churring male Nightjars on our way.
