Nightjar. 2019

2016: Great Tit (Parus major)
2018: Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus)
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Fleur
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Re: Nightjar. 2019

Post by Fleur »

9:35 People are working with machines out of view
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Marbzy
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Post by Marbzy »

Last night, just before midnight:

23:49:10 NJ1 flies in from left to right and lands by the rightmost tree
23:50:54 a whistle
23:50:58 NJ2 flies in from the right, the NJ1 moves a little

Perhaps the clearest sighting follows:
23:51:10 NJ2 flies further to the left, lands back in the ditch, takes off to the left, flies out of view, but comes back to perch on the tip of the thick dead branch close to the left edge of cam view

23:52:36 NJ2 flies down to the right and into the ditch
23:53:02 NJ2 flies out of the ditch to the right, makes a couple of U-turns and lands in the ditch again, closer to where NJ1 should be
23:53:07 NJ2 flies up a little to the right and down into the ditch
23:53:16 a NJ flies up and out of view; then the same (?) NJ descends into the ditch 23:53:20
23:55:00 a couple of whistling calls
23:55:55 three whistles, then a NJ flies up and down, back into the ditch, a little croaking/grunting follows
23:59:32 a NJ flies out of the ditch and seems to come back down

-----
A fair amount of churring, whistling, etc., may be heard at various points throughout the night, with a couple of fairly distant whistling calls at 04:00:25, and churring even as late as 04:03:00 (volume needs to be set close to max if for this sound to be picked up relatively clearly). The nightjars will be spending the day at a fair distance from the camera, I'd say. No chance to see them before twilight returns.
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Post by aita »

:hi:
last night
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Post by aita »

Today morning 3:40
visible: 08 from right to up center. 123 from there to right.
318 top right, makes a circle around the tree.
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Post by pazi »

aita wrote: July 11th, 2019, 8:31 pm There is a road in the woods where cars and tractors are driving.
Well this explains the ghost-like take-offs of the cranes! It looked so unreal I couldn't understand how they can move like that.
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Post by Marbzy »

Another crepuscule sees a fair deal of nightjar activity:

23:19:00 churring till 23:19:30
23:19:55 whistling
23:20:43 whistling
23:21:15 churring till 23:22:05
23:22:26 churring till 23:22:50, (live?) music follows
23:26:15 a nightjar flies across cam view from the right
23:30:01 croaking, then churring
23:30:59 a little more churring
23:31:25 croaking (closer, then more distant)
23:32:38 from the right a NJ lands in the ditch
23:33:00 the NJ flies a little to the right
23:33:19 the NJ flies up vertically
23:33:32 the NJ (I assume this to be the same bird) flies into view from the right, lands in the ditch
23:33:58 the NJ flies up and away, whistling follows
23:34:45 a churring call (close to the mic)
23:35:09 another churring call (still close to the mic)
23:35:26 more churring calls till 233546, followed by croaking
23:36:25 a series of four whistling calls
23:36:55 a whistling call
23:37:03 churring (further away from the mic) till 23:37:55, then a pause, a short churr, then croaking
23:38:11 two birds fly across cam view from the left, descending
23:38:25 croaking, then, from 23:38:38, churring (initially overlapping with croaking)
churring continues, with a pause, till 23:39:05
23:40:10 a NJ flies into view from the right, lands in the ditch
23:40:25 the NJ flies up and comes back down, then performs an extended version of the manouevre
23:41:12 the NJ flies up vertically and soon lands in the ditch again
23:41:20 the NJ takes off up to the left, returns, flies away again in the same direction, comes back again to land in the ditch
23:42:12 the NJ flies up and to the left, comes back at 23:42:20
23:43:18 more of the same: the NJ takes off to the left and is back at the same spot on the ground a few seconds later
23:43:42 the NJ flies up and a little to the right, lands at the same spot (coming from the right) three seconds later
23:44:05 a five-second copy of the previous manoeuvre
23:44:32 this time the NJ flies to the left, comes back nine seconds later
23:45:49 the NJ seems to take off and leave the scene
23:46:45 the NJ is back (I assume it's the same bird) at the same spot in the ditch
23:47:17 up and down again
23:48:21 to the left and back
23:49:15 up and down one more time
23:49:26 he's off to the left (top), back in eleven seconds
23:51:00 up and down in five seconds

I stop watching at 23:55:00 with the bird probably still in the ditch. Has he found a convenient observation point from which he sets out on successive hunting forays?

A random check on further events has brought the following observations:
00:38:16 a bird (likely a nightjar) flies into view from the right then up, out of view, back into view, exits to the right
01:00:40 whistles and churring till 01:02:33, then again from 01:03:30 till 01:03:50

:offtobed:
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Post by aita »

:hi:
Marbzy :2thumbsup:
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Post by aita »

I look now, either in the morning, in front of the camera.
EDIT
3:19 on the video 010 022 108 nightjar or not :puzzled:

3:45 then I heard it last time.

3:51 small bird, not nightjar https://youtu.be/Gy1ZOtco3LQ
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Post by Fleur »

July 13
:hi:

6:49 Cranes call
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Post by Fleur »

22:57 a young Buck
Image

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Post by Fleur »

23:05 Woodcock passed by
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Post by Fleur »

23:23 Nightjar is singing, but maybe the gasoline was gone? :mrgreen:

I'm :offtobed:
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Post by tonsmit »

I hope they keep the nightjar webcam going until at least July 16th when there is a full moon, I understand. Then we might be able to watch their hunting behaviour, chasing moths etc.
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Post by Marbzy »

No sightings, just sounds tonight.

First came a woodcock's (Scolopax rusticola) croaking, heard at 22:44:56, then at 22:52:01, then again at 23:06:00.

This is a great opportunity for me to admit to attributing (at least some of) a woodcock's croaking to a nightjar over the last couple of days (or, rather, nights). Shame on me. Incidentally, this example serves to prove the saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. :blush:

Then came the following noises:
23:17:50 sound of hooves (is the buck back? - see Fleur's post above)
23:22:19 the woodcock again
23:23:02 churring, 23:23:34 wing clapping
23:24:19 churring till 23:25:16
23:25:24 whistle 23:25:44 more whistling
23:26:24 a whistle
23:28:04 churring till 23:28:35
23:28:47 churring till 23:28:55
23:35:20 the woodcock again, the croaking continues till 23:35:50
23:49:40 distant churring till 23:50:54
23:51:44 distant churring and whistling till 23:52:04
23:55:06 distant churring till 23:55:11
23:55:30 distant churring till 23:56:22
23:59:40 a whistle
00:08:34 a clear whistle
00:10:58 three whistles
00:12:44 two whistles
00:13:07 two whistles
00:20:30 whistling till 00:20:53
00:21:18 a whistle
00:21:46 churring, wing clapping, slow churring till 00:22:20
00:23:06 three whistles
00:23:10 churring till 00:23:21

:offtobed: at 00:25
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Post by Marbzy »

14 July

No sightings in the morning, either.

From 03:30 to 04:10 just a few calls can be heard, mainly between 03:33 and 03:36 (churring plus a little whistling), then between 03:39 and 03:42 (mainly the churring song, but from a more distant location).
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Post by Marbzy »

And no sightings in the evening.

Whistling and churring are heard on several occasions, e.g. at 23:23. Perhaps the clearest sounds tonight are heard from 23:57:50 till 00:01:10, with a fair amount of whistling, churring and apparent wing clapping. A little surprisingly for me, the wing clapping, if it is what I think it is, is not accompanied by churring (e.g. around 23:58) - on other nights to date it tended to appear mainly simultaneously with the coda of a churring call.

'Night to all.
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Post by Fleur »

July 15

9:50 zooming.
No Nightjars but it is a beautiful place in the forest. The sound is great.
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Post by Marbzy »

A crane (or cranes) calling from 19:45:19.
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Post by Marbzy »

16 July

A few sounds after a very wet night:
03:35:10 a whistle and a churr
03:45:25 churring
03:46:05 a whistle, some churring and wing clapping, 5 more whistles
03:46:54 more whistling and more churring
03:47:30 a churr and a whistle
03:48:00 some churring
03:49:04 clearly overlapping whistling and churring; the churring goes on for about a minute
around 03:58 churring
around 04:03 and 04:05 churring (?)
04:06 a little more churring (relatively clear e.g. at 04:06:12)

No sightings, but there are still at least two nightjars (cf. simultaneous whistling and churring at 03:49) in the area.
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Post by guest »

:hi:
17:16 🦌
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