Call of the Nightjar
Along with the arrival of Swift comes another bird of myth and magic - the Nightjar. While the Swift is a bird of the summer skies the Nightjar haunts the wooded heaths.
Rarely seen unless you know where to look, it’s ventriloquial ‘churring‘ call and ‘boomerang’ display flights start up at that time of the evening, just before dusk - what we, from the West Country, call dimpsey.
Origami
folding paper a nightjar flies from my hands
On this still, windless night the forest is silent. The trees watch, like inscrutable sentries. Moths flutter past silently, gossamer scraps pale against the darkness. Bats swoop soundlessly, dusky shadows whose voices are beyond our hearing. It seems that the creatures that stalk the night woods are mostly unseen and unheard. But the forest isn’t quite silent. There is a whirring in the air, something that you wouldn’t really notice unless your attention is drawn to it. Something that sounds alien and a little eerie. It seems to be coming from the trees – all of the trees, as though the air itself is singing. Listen, and you’ll hear it too …
Source: The call of the Nightjar by Andrea Stephenson (Harvesting Hecate)
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Andrea Stephenson for allowing me to quote from her excellent blog. And to Martin Smith who has also written about the Nightjar in his wood (Hut Wood) and unwittingly sowed the seed of an idea, and to Bagpuss (Small Films 1974) for the magic.
Artist Credit
The featured image is of a ‘Nightjar at Arne’ Dorset, England. From an original acrylic wildlife painting by Dorset UK artist Cliff Towler http://www.clifftowler.co.uk/
If you scroll down this post in my blog https://genekeysdiary.wordpress.com/2020/04/27/24th-dream-arc-thunder-sounds-silence-is-earth/ you’ll find sketches and a recording of a Danish NIGHTJAR. Beautiful haiku, Clive!
Lovely sketches and recording Jane. While I think I get the gist of your post I need to take time to muse on your insights!
I love Andrea’s post about the mysterious nightjar, and the recording within it. Clive you might help me. On my walk yesterday in the woods north of London – and buttercup fields! – I saw a bird on a tree, about the size of a pigeon. I thought it might be a woodpecker and kept very still. It was mainly white with a black crest I think, and a distinctive black stripe down its wing and (I think) a long beak. It crept discreetly around the stem of the tree and finally flew away busily. Also saw a mass of swallows and swifts (?) screeching and partying around big oaks in the field. A great joy!
Jane you have me puzzled. By its behaviour I agree it sounds like a Woodpecker. When it flew was its flight bouncy, undulating and wave-like? But mostly white! That’s got me foxed. A Great Spotted Woodpecker being mostly black and white could give the impression of being white in some lights. And the long beak fits. They can also have a slight crest. I’ll look up leucism in woodpeckers quite often seen now in Crows and Blackbirds!
I think it was a G Spotted woodpecker, it was black and white, not all white, but seemed slightly speckled. I can’t remember accurately but I think it did bounce away – rather unexpectedly as it moved quietly round the tree. It didn’t do any hammering – late in the year for that? – but I immediately thought – woodpecker. Only I had in my mind “red spotted woodpecker”!
Wonderful little verse! So simple, such impact! The Nightjar is a bird I have never seen except in books or on TV. Marvellous reference to Andrea Stephenson; thank you.
Dimpsey: such a wonderful word (the term crepuscular just doesn’t work for me).
Such a beautiful poem, and I love the painting, too!
Thank you Cathy. This one seems to have a bit of magic about it!
The featured image is of a ‘Nightjar at Arne’ Dorset, England. From an original acrylic wildlife painting by Dorset UK artist Cliff Towler http://www.clifftowler.co.uk
Wonderful, Clive and I love Andrea;s writing too. I would love to see a Nightjar and just missed seeing a turtle dove tonight. Am terrible with the binoculars, it has been calling for a while and hubby traced it to high up on a chestnut tree. So much myth and magic.
Oh how wonderful. The last time I saw a Turtle Dove must have been when I was at the British Bird Fair at Kingsbury Water Park in 1990 or ‘91?. Part of the Park ran alongside a canal and walking along the old towpath hearing Turtle Dove in the trees on the opposite bank after all the visitors had gone for the day, was a joy!
Too much is lost without many knowing but was glad to hear that there are turtle doves at the wilding project at Knepp Castle, Sussex.
Wonderful! I have only ever heard one once and was so thrilled as it was (and remains) so high on my wishlist to hear a nightjar!
How lucky to have heard one Helen. It’s high on my list too! I never seem to be in the right place in spring to hear them. Well maybe one day …