Nightjar -- Caprimulgus europaeus

Three or four pairs come every year to the northern part of Hemsted Forest, which has more open, heathlike areas than the southern half. In early June 2005 we went out one night and struck lucky first time. We were sitting next to one of the tracks running alongside a large open area when suddenly this individual began his "song" in a lone tree quite close by. More like a loud cricket than a bird, this track shows what it's like to centre a dish microphone on to one of these strange songsters. He sang for about 2 minutes. This exerpt goes from near the beginning, then fades half way through to resume near the end, when the rasping clicks stop abruptly, leaving a brief echo and then an eerie silence. After that the bird must have flown off as the singing was resumed too far away to get a good recording.

Hemsted Nightjar (1.16 Mb) 160 kb/s mp3, 1 minute

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