Nightjars..."you ain't seen me right?" Cornwall July 2024

 Nightjars... What special birds! Masters of camouflage!

For many years I've enjoyed going out to watch & more often hear them in the forests & heathland of mid & north Cornwall.

Until now all of my photographs have been grab shots of them perched at the top of a tree or whizzing past my ear!

 

All that changed this year when I found my first bird at roost on the ground! 

With its eyes closed and just an occasional flicker showing it was still alive I watched it intently thinking 'does he know I'm here' or is he so confident in its ability to stay motionless and its camouflage that it thinks I can't see it.

Or is it genuinely asleep and doesn't know I'm near?

I've now watched a dozen in various places and always given them plenty of space and photographed them with a long 500mm lens, sometimes cropping in strongly on my computer. Often they are surrounded by dead timber and dry grasses so that they blend in perfectly. In fact I will often gaze for many minutes before I notice one lying along a log of the exact same cryptic colouration. 

These birds are not on nests but roosting probably after fledging young, often close to forestry & heath tracks & footpaths. I'm sure they get regularly disturbed by dogs as these areas are popular with dog walkers and I often see dogs rooting through the areas the nightjars inhabit.

I'm confident that I'm not disturbing them as I have found so many in regular areas, often on the same logs or branches.

So here is a selection of recent images....

 

I suspect this is a juvenile

Urban Kittiwakes in Bridlington Yorkshire June 2024.

 

I'm sure the presence of nesting Kittiwakes in a town centre like Bridlington isn't seen as a favourable asset by many people. But for us who had come up to Yorkshire from Cornwall to photograph seabirds it was all part of the wildlife experience. We are used to Herring Gulls nesting in our Cornish towns and are familiar with the downside of their mess, constant noise and the antics they get up to securing food and protecting their young.

I'd come across Kittiwakes nesting on buildings before up in Norway but aren't really aware of them doing so in Cornwall. I've also seen images of them on the Tyne and in the Newcastle area but it was the first time I'd photographed them in a truly urban situation.

Here are a few photos I took one evening around the town .....

In case you're forgetting what Kittiwakes look like when nesting in the truly wild environment here are a few images from both Yorkshire, Northumberland and back home in Cornwall.

Kittiwake on a Bempton ledge

Kittiwake colony on Bawden rocks, St.Agnes Cornwall

Kittiwake colony on Bawden rocks, St.Agnes Cornwall

Kittiwake pair on the Farne islands.

Kittiwake with 2 chicks on Inner Farne