Nightjars: Spending a night in the woods to hear an other-worldly birdcall

These days that kind of invite means a twilight trip into the forest to look out for interesting bird life rather than a crawl between pubs.

So, Graham and myself drove over to the edge of an old pine wood not far from Harrogate to look out for one of the most iconic birds that visits Britain.

Nightjars usually only come out at night – something which is pretty much nailed on by their job description – so it was getting dark when we arrived and made our rendezvous with Keith who had kindly offered to find them for us.

Keith has worked on projects that planted more than a million trees so knows his stuff about what lives around them.

Personally, I knew little more than this is a species that eats insects and quickly discovered that at this time of night there was no shortage of midges for them to snack on. Almost as soon as we emerged from the car the blood suckers were out with determination.

In my naivety I offered the opinion that at least it would attract the Nightjars to come out early. I was quickly advised that eating something so small was a bit beneath their dignity. It was a good meaty moth or something of real substance that they were really after.

Those didn’t emerge until after dark, so we wandered peacefully around the edge of the forest using paths where there were younger trees and a wide enough corridor for the birds to patrol a good long stretch.

They don’t like dense forest or mature trees and need open scrubland or the edge of woods.

It was remarkably peaceful up on the hills wondering around as we waited for the light to fade sufficiently to tempt them out.

They come all the way from Africa to take advantage of the clouds of insects that proliferate throughout the warmer times in Britain.

Unfortunately, that bounty no longer exists. Much of our insect life has been wiped out by decades of spraying and fields of monoculture so all birds that fly here have increasingly struggled to find sufficient food to rear their young.

The journey is long and hard enough without getting here to find that the food source you arrived for is in short supply.

Which made the search for these rare birds all the more interesting. During the day they hide up in the heather, which is where they raise their chicks, and there is no certainty about when they will regard it as dark enough to be out hunting.

After an hour or two of patient exploring only one thing seemed to have happened. My mobile phone had gone off revealing me to be pretty inept at stalking wildlife. Fortunately, these are not shy birds.

Which was what we soon discovered. Searching for nature almost always seems to consist of a lot of waiting and then a sudden need for rapid reactions as the thing you are looking for appears at speed and disappears almost as quickly.

This time the appearance was indeed a sudden shock when Keith gave us a quick alert, but the bird had the decency to fly up close and circle round us to check us out.

Confident in its own domain it swooped around us perhaps twenty feet away and gave us a good clear look at its plump body.

As you might expect from a night bird there wasn’t much in the way of exciting colour and to my mind it looked very much like an upscaled sand martin. A quick glimpse of which may not immediately seem worth the effort.

It was what followed that was truly magical. The sound. This is a bird that makes the most astonishing calls. The males set off a vibration in their throats which produces something other worldly and bizarre.

Imagine a cross between the sound of a high voltage power line, an electric drill and a Siberian throat singer and you might get close. In truth it had to be experienced.

Some sounds are capable of entering your whole body rather than just being absorbed through your ears. This one resonates powerfully.

I don’t know what it does to a female Night Jar when the male sends out the signal but it seemed to me to be giving out a very clear message: “This is my section of land. Intruders aren’t welcome. I might be prepared to make an exception for the right kind of woman.”

Coming out of the woods in what was now a pitch black night the sound was particularly powerful.

Listening to something so genuinely outside the normal range of natural sound isn’t just an experience worth waiting for. It provides an emotional encounter which is hard to forget.

So, if you get offered the chance to go out for a few Jars I very much recommend that you take up the opportunity.

Just wrap up safely against the midges, develop a zen like determination to enjoy the wait, and leave your mobile phone in the car.