Members of the group have for some time had an interest in Nightjars on the Pebblebed Heaths, so when we were approached about tagging nightjars we were keen to take up the opportunity. The BTO has been running a project where individual nightjars are fitted with gps locators. These devices are battery powered and can run for about a week, plotting the position of the bird during the night. The birds were caught while at the nest, since the bird needs to be recaptured a week later to recover the tag. The female is most often caught in the early evening and then the male may also be caught if the nets are left a little later as he comes in to care for the eggs/chicks.
The work was carried out in coordination with the RSPB at Aylesbeare Common and the Clinton-Devon Estates on the Pebblebed Heaths. During the period five nests were located. The first on Aylesbeare Common was unfortunately predated before we could capture the adult birds. The second nest belonged to birds found displaying on the night we attempted to catch the first bird. This nest was very close to a path also on Aylesbeare Common. The nest was found be myself, and the female was duly trapped and tagged. Unfortunately she was not recaptured despite extensive attempts and a number of possible bouncing of the bird from the net. As a result the tag could not be recovered.
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| Myself, Fiona from the RSPB and Robin with the nightjar in the bag. |
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| The tracker is fitted to the two central tail feathers. |
The next bird to be tagged was on Bicton Common. This bird was very much in the open and was easily found by myself, though the general area of the nest had been reported to me by Lesley from the Clinton-Devon survey team so I knew where to look! This bird was captured and the tag fitted. This tag was recovered a week later. Lesley found another nest on the Hawkerland Common. We set nets to catch the female and successfully tagged her. While we were processing this bird we left the net up in the hopes of also catching the male and we were in luck! We succeeded in catching and tagging this pair and both tags were duly recovered a week later.
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| Typically nightjars will open their mouths very wide and hiss like a snake |
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| Beautiful plumage giving excellent camouflage. |
In addition we attempted to catch birds at two sights identified by Ed from Clinton-Devon. One was on a plantation area just north of the Warren car park, and the other was on Stowford Common. Despite several attempts no birds from these nets were trapped, although both appear to have fledged successfully.
All the nests encountered,apart from the very first, seem to have fledged young. All bar the nest on the plantation fledged two chicks, while the plantation nest fledged one chick with a second egg which did not hatch.
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| A typical clutch of two juvenile nightjar chicks from the Picton Common nest |
Initial results from the trackers have been very interesting. Hopefully we will be able to post some more information about this in due course. We are also hopeful that the project will continue next year!
The field work on this project was extremely time consuming and I would very much like to send my appreciation to Adrian, Robin and Alan who joined me on almost all the sessions as well as all those who came along for one or two.
