Nightjars on Chobham Common

17^th June.  It must be fifteen years since I last led a Rotary expedition  to Chobham Common to search for nightjars, one of the UK’s rarest and most elusive birds. On that occasion, we heard nightjars but didn’t see any, but the trip was also memorable as I managed to lose half the Rotary Club of Shepperton Aurora on the way back to the car park in darkness. I remember at the time wishing fervently that I had carried out a Risk Assessment before embarking on the walk!  Thank goodness, they all eventually found their way back, in fact Peter and Audrey claimed to have actually seen a nightjar whilst lost on the Common.

Chobham Common

This year, I thought it was time we repeated the adventure, but decided to restrict numbers to 20 people, so that I could more easily count them out, and count them back again. Obviously I wanted to avoid any repetition of the last time. As part of my Risk Asssessment, therefore,  I ensured that all members were aware of potential hazards, such as getting lost in the dark, tripping over obstacles, being eaten alive by biting insects and suffering hypothermia when the night-time temperature drops.

Chobham Common at dusk

Surprisingly, there wasn’t a rush of applications to join my expedition.  It was a more select group than last time, in fact there were just three of us, myself, the IPDG and Daisy, who arrived at the Monument Car Park at around 9.30 p.m. on a cool evening just before midsummer. The car park gets its name from a monument erected there to commemorate Queen Victoria’s review of British troops on Chobham Common prior to the Crimean War.

Arriving in Spring, nightjars are ground-nesting birds, which leaves them vulnerable to predators such as foxes and weasels, and easily disturbed by foraging dogs. They can only thrive, therefore in areas where they are offered some form of protection.  Their preferred habitat is heathland, which makes  Chobham Common a suitable place to look for them. Midsummer  is the time of year that offers the best opportunity to find nightjars. They are nocturnal birds, and spend the day lying motionless on the ground, their colouring giving them the appearance of dead branches, which renders them almost invisible.

Nightjar (picture from web)

As dusk starts to descend, the nightjars become more active, seeking their food supply of moths and other insects, and delivering their extraordinary churring song, which sounds like an engine being revved. As we headed up the track from  the car park, we were listening intently for this churring. We saw and heard lots of other birds, including song thrushes and blackbirds, and even had two sightings of a woodcock flying around its territory (an activity known as ‘roding’), but no nightjars. We were, however, lucky enough to briefly hear a Dartford warbler, another rare bird that likes the heathland habitat provided by Chobham Common.

Dartford warbler (picture from web)

At around 9.45, with mist starting to rise in the valley below us, we heard our first nightjar, about 100 yards away, and shortly after we heard two more, so we know there are at least 3 of them.  I once read somewhere that if you wave a white handkerchief in the air, it can attract nightjars to you, as they can mistake your hankie for a giant moth.  So it was, that the IPDG patiently waved a white handkerchief whilst I scoured the growing darkness for nightjars. Well, I can announce that this old wives tale does not work, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t frighten them away, as we never saw a single nightjar.

Getting dark now - Daisy and the IPDG

The insects were starting to bite when we decided it was time to make a tactical retreat at around 10.15, and we successfully found our way back to the car park. Whilst we hadn’t seen any nightjars, we didn’t feel it had been a wasted trip, as we not only heard them, but also heard a Dartford warbler, and saw a woodcock. So on an expedition to find one species of rare bird, we actually found three of them.    I was looking forward to announcing this at our next club meeting. They would soon regret not coming.

Not seen by us - nightjar flying (picture from web)