Searching In The Dark

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black ...

There you go, a bit of culture on Eye To The Telescope. That's a quote from Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. What's that got to do with birding I hear you cry. Well, not much to be honest, but I did go birding on Friday evening, just as the sun was passing over the yard arm. Whilst that would normally be the prompt for a malt whisky or a gin and tonic to appear, on this occasion it signalled a bit of Nightjar spotting on Cannock Chase.

An impressive crew were present, in fact Mrs Reg even came along for the trip. We arrived at Springslade Lodge at about 7:20pm and were joined by Kay, Max and Pete about twenty minutes later. We had a short stroll around the surrounding area for a bit, then headed back to the cars and met up with Staffordshire birders Richard, Andy and Jim at about 8:30pm.

As I said earlier, the prime objective was to find some Nightjars, but whilst we were waiting for the sun to drop we enjoyed good views of a Hobby, plus a few Cuckoos. Finally, at about 9:40pm I heard my first Nightjar. Minutes later we had tracked them down and watched them perform for half an hour or so [lifer 223!] [year tick 201!].

Other birds of note that evening included a Great Spotted Woodpecker, a few Willow Warblers, Linnet, Yellowhammer and a roding Woodcock. A good evening was had by all and it was nice to meet up with a few more Bird Forum regulars.

Sadly, the failing light rendered the names of a few Eddie Stobart trucks unreadable on the journey home, but I wasn't complaining. I hope to see more Nightjars in Wales next week, plus one or two other things. A day on Anglesey is planned, along with trips to a couple of good local sites. A full report will follow upon my return.

Worcestershire Source

If I may, I would like to make a shameless plug for a new blog that I have set up. Following the disappointing news that the excellent Worcester Birding website was to become subscription based, I and few others felt duty bound to try to continue providing a free reference point for sightings in and around Worcestershire.

On Wednesday I therefore took the bull by the horns and created Worcestershire Source. Hopefully, in time this will grow to become the place to catch up with any important birding news from the county.

Any site of this nature relies upon input from others and all reports, articles, information and feedback will be welcomed. If you wish to report any sightings or news, or just provide your comments regarding the site, please email worcestershiresource@hotmail.co.uk accordingly.

If you like the site and support the initiative, please add a link to it from your own blog or website and spread the word!

The web address for Worcestershire Source is http://worcestershiresource.blogspot.com/