Arne at dusk
I was visiting relatives in Dorset on Saturday and so took the opportunity for an evening visit to RSPB Arne in the hope of spotting, or at least hearing, a nightjar, a bird I've not encountered before.
We got there a couple of hours before dusk and so headed for the Shipstal trail. First spot was a pair of G S Woodpeckers, an adult and a juvenile. Past the farm with swallows overhead and a bathing greenfinch, and a field full of Sika deer with little babies. Not a lot on show through the woods, some swifts in a clearing and a distant yaffle indicating an unseen green woodpecker. Out in the water, herons and little egrets. From the hide, redshanks, curlew, black headed gulls. On over the heath, ravens (unexpected!), and a great photo op with an egret, oystercatcher and black tailed godwit jostling for position, and a pied wagtail making a last minute bid to get in the frame.
With the light fading, we headed back towards the start of the Coombe trail, where the nightjars have been seen regularly. We didn't see or hear anything for a while, but then a very odd buzzing, sounding like a distant diesel engine. Definite churring! And then, silent and silhouetted against the orange sky and looking like a giant swallow, my first nightjar! Darkness quickly fell with us still out on the heath, and the intermittent churring was punctured once or twice by barn owl shrieks. I couldn't see one, until it dawned on me that the white shape in the half-light I could barely see wasn't in fact a fence post, but a perched owl staring at me. Or at least I thought it was, but confirmation wasn't had until it flew off! We got more glimpses of nightjars in the last of the light, and then back to the car for a long drive home. Well worth it!
We got there a couple of hours before dusk and so headed for the Shipstal trail. First spot was a pair of G S Woodpeckers, an adult and a juvenile. Past the farm with swallows overhead and a bathing greenfinch, and a field full of Sika deer with little babies. Not a lot on show through the woods, some swifts in a clearing and a distant yaffle indicating an unseen green woodpecker. Out in the water, herons and little egrets. From the hide, redshanks, curlew, black headed gulls. On over the heath, ravens (unexpected!), and a great photo op with an egret, oystercatcher and black tailed godwit jostling for position, and a pied wagtail making a last minute bid to get in the frame.
With the light fading, we headed back towards the start of the Coombe trail, where the nightjars have been seen regularly. We didn't see or hear anything for a while, but then a very odd buzzing, sounding like a distant diesel engine. Definite churring! And then, silent and silhouetted against the orange sky and looking like a giant swallow, my first nightjar! Darkness quickly fell with us still out on the heath, and the intermittent churring was punctured once or twice by barn owl shrieks. I couldn't see one, until it dawned on me that the white shape in the half-light I could barely see wasn't in fact a fence post, but a perched owl staring at me. Or at least I thought it was, but confirmation wasn't had until it flew off! We got more glimpses of nightjars in the last of the light, and then back to the car for a long drive home. Well worth it!
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Lucky you - Nightjars, Barn Owls and an Egret, not to mention everything else in a few short hours.
Nice part of the world too - not been since I was a kid on family holidays.Posted 05-07-09 at 10:10 PM by alanjns
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Arne is a superb reserve, I have had several great days out there and was the only place I have managed prolonged views of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Churring Nightjars are amazing to hear, my friends thought I was mad when at Arne one evening looking for Nightjars, I waved a white cloth up and down as it was getting dark and birds started churring, to their amazement a Nightjar flew around us wing clapping only a few feet away, it's a trick that sometimes works but not always
cheers, JohnPosted 06-07-09 at 07:59 PM by clydebirder
