Overseas Goatsucker in Sussex

Recently we heard of a ring that had been found in a barn, we coded this as 'ring only found' as there was no bird attached to it. When adding the details to the ringing database, it was a nice surprise to see that the ring had once been on the leg of a Nightjar. But, even more interestingly was that this ring had been put on this Nightjar at Jews Gate, the ringing site of the Gibraltar Ringing Group, in the overseas territory of Gibraltar in October 2012.

It would would have been much nicer to receive news that this bird was still alive, but still we thought this was good enough to be mentioned, as the bird must have travelled from its wintering grounds, probably in southern Africa, to the UK at least once.

Nightjar - John Bowers

So this latest Nightjar is the first documented movement between the overseas territory of Gibraltar and the UK, and the second between the Iberian peninsula and the UK.

Found in the online ringing reports...

During the period 1909-2013, a grand total of 6,453 Nightjars have been ringed by ringers in the UK & Ireland, however only 222 of them have been recovered in that period. According to the ringing database, recoveries documenting the movements of Nightjars between the UK and other countries are not very many, 16 in total. Not susprisingly, movements between the UK and France are at the top of this category (11 birds), but there are other five movements between the UK and other countries worth mentioning: Algeria, Morocco, Spain and The Netherlands, which are shown in the map below (ringing and finding sites are paired up by the colour of the pin).



This latest report comes to confirm what our colleagues here at the BTO have revealed with the Nightjar Tracking Project. They were able to map the movements of a bird in a year-long trip across at least 16 countries with the use of a geolocator. They estimated that this bird travelled as far as the Democratic republic of Congo in a 19,000km round trip!

Migrant Movement Magic

With migrants starting to move south, we have received reports of a few interesting recoveries.

David Coker writes:
“We managed to slot in our 12th and final visit to our Constant Effort Site at Much Marcle, Herefordshire yesterday morning.  The highlight was arguably a juvenile Redstart; one ‘already ringed’ juvenile Redstart, with a ring number beginning Y190. This seemed familiar to the team members who were ringing, because we used a few of my rings last week after the usual stock ran out; and those rings started Y190. Yes, I had ringed the Redstart, as a chick, on 9 June, in a nestbox at one of my Pied Flycatcher ringing sites SW of Hereford (31 km W of Much Marcle). The trainee who helped me ring the brood was with us again this morning.”

Redstart - Derek Belsey

More news came from Wilf Norman (South Cleveland Ringing Group) who was catching breeding Nightjar in a local forest. Amazingly he caught a male wearing a foreign ring! We have had very few recoveries abroad: BTO birds being found in Algeria (1), France (10), Morocco (2), The Netherlands (1) and Spain (1). Nightjar with foreign rings found in this country are much fewer in number, with the total being … Spain (1).  Now this has been doubled, Spain stand at two. The first Spanish ringed Nightjar was caught only 20 miles from this Nightjar capture, so the North York Moors have 'cornered the market' for Spanish ringed birds.

Nightjar- Derek Belsey

Thanks to David Coker and Wilf Norman for letting us know.

Nightjars and Lightbugs

Nightjars are now returning to the Forestry Commission's Thetford Forest and are pairing up ready to start nesting. Thetford Forest Ringing Group members were out on Thursday night in order to catch these birds to understand more about their movements on migration and particularly in their wintering quarters, as surprising little is currently known about this species. A first catch of four birds was a marvellous start to this new BTO/Biotrack project, supported by Shoreham & District Ornithological Society.

Unlike the Cuckoo, previously reported, the Nightjar is too small to have a Satellite transmitter fitted. Geolocator tags are an excellent alternative but we have to catch the birds again next year to download the information on their movements. These tags, known as Lightbugs, collect data on day length and time, which is used to calculate the bird’s global position to within 100km, each day. These daily locations will help reveal migration routes and wintering locations within Africa.


Just when you thought a near perfect night couldn't get any better, one of the females was discovered to be already ringed, RP01170. She was originally caught on migration, 171km away at Icklesham, Sussex on 15 September 1999 and we had not seen her since she was caught in the forest in 2008.

RP01170 has now broken the previous British and Irish longevity record, which stood at 11 years and 10 days, by 257 days. Amazingly, Brian Cresswell who helped fit the Lightbug to RP01170, originally caught the previous oldest Nightjar, in Dorset, back in 1992! So, quite a privilege to have handled the two oldest Nightjars in Britain and Ireland.

Thanks to Brian Cresswell and Forestry Commission for their valuable help and to Kate Risely for the photo (Lee Barber on left and Brian Cresswell on right).

Nightjar ringing

Last year UK ringers caught over 230 Nightjars to try and find out more about their fantastic migration and demography. This species is believed to winter in tropical and South Africa. So far we have received recoveries from various countries including The Netherlands, Spain, France, Morocco and Algeria but there is much more we don't know yet.


Interestingly the notes in a Nightjars 'jar' or 'churr' are emitted at a rate of 30 or 40 per second and ringers can also testify to an interesting 'hiss' that is given by birds in the hand. This could be used to 'see off' any would be attackers by mimicking a snake.

Rebecca Nesbit has posted a clip on Youtube (below) which shows Mike Gould going through the process of Nightjar ringing.

A BTO night out with Ray Mears

For staff at the BTO, living and working in Thetford can have its perks. Thetford Forest has quite a few special species just 10 minutes down the road from the BTO headquarters. Crossbill, Firecrest, Hobby, Woodlark, Tree Pipit and Nightjar to name a few.

This can make for great filming opportunities for wildlife documentaries and every now and then staff here are asked to join a film crew to help film some of these birds. Last weekend presented one of these occasions.

The plan was to take the world renowned survival expert, Ray Mears, out into the forest (see photograph below, Ray is 6th from the right) to film and ring Nightjars that have recently arrived back from Africa. Ray, who is currently filming a series for ITV, was hoping to capture a Nightjar and help fit a radio tag onto the bird as part of a study into this species. Katrina Evans is doing a Phd with the University of East Anglia with the aim of tracking Nightjar movements during their stay here in the forest. The data collected is very valuable and information on feeding strategies, nesting progress and other movements will be analysed and used to inform conservation action for Nightjars in the future.


Due to the weather conditions, clear sky, bright moon and freezing temperatures, the Nightjars were more interested in feeding and we were unable to catch any. We did however get great views and footage of a roosting bird on a tree stump when we arrived, and a churring male Nightjar at dusk.


It just goes to show, when dealing with wildlife, nothing can be guaranteed.

Thanks go to John Bowers for the Nightjar photo and the ringing team for a cold but memorable evening.

Tapping for Goatsuckers and a Breckland first

We've been out and about catching up with some Breckland specialities over the last few days.

As part of some BTO work on nest predation, we were out yesterday 'tapping' along forestry plantations looking for Nightjar nests. Once found, we can install nest cameras to monitor the progress of nesting attempts. Below you can see the camera on the left, and the eggs in the so-called nest on the right. Nightjar nests are never more than this, with eggs pretty much just laid on a patch of open ground.


The footage from these cameras is an amazing insight into the daily lives of these birds. Footage from Woodlark nests is also online here.

Then this morning, members of the BTO Nunnery Ringing Group finally caught up with the family of Cetti's Warblers that we suspected were breeding on our reserve. This is the first proven breeding in the Brecks of this colonist. The photo here shows mum (on the left) and two kids, and dad was also caught earlier in the morning.


Thanks to John Marchant for the Nightjar photo and Kate Risely for the Cetti's photo.