Friday 18 July 2008

Nightjars and Glow-worms


Week 30 – Friday, 18th July 2008

Mom and I went on the Guided Nightjar Walk at Sopley Common – our first ever. Our little intrepid band of 13 turned up with Nigel Brooks leading the motley crew. One thing Mom and I realised at the outset is that we were sorely unprepared. Mom did not bring a rain mac and we brought no insect repellent whatsoever. However the Gods were kind to us and despite a couple of spattering’s of rain, the heavy clouds that had been threatening all day did not open up and teach us a lesson.

It's amazing how many times we have ridden past this spot and never known that the heath lands exist, but I will definitely be coming back. Some of the group pointed out Hawkley tower in the distance and told us that use to a refinery and there is also power station there. The refinery apparently had now been mothballed..

Nigel gave us a bit of a talk advising us that they were starting to fight back the old forestry pines and silver birch that had begun to invade the heath lands and in a couple of years the landscape would be much different. There are a number of heathers growing on the heath lands – we saw apricot and pink varities.

We heard a Woodcock in the distance but did not manage to see it. We saw and heard a couple of Nightjar’s in the distance, but then when we moved higher up on the ridge, one Nightjar actually circled the group of us and then hovered above our heads. Boy it was lovely - a big thanks to Nigel and the Dorset Wildlife Trust.

If you want to see more information on this bird here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightjar. On the way down we managed to see 2 glow-worms. I looked the information up and this is a wonderful UK site : http://www.galaxypix.com/glowworms/. Needless to say I slept like a baby.

4 comments:

Goosey said...

Hello, Glad you enjoyed the glow worm walk and saw some Nightjars, Tattyanne and I went on one of those walks at Corfe Mullen, I put it on my blog on 6th July, it was amazing, the birds almost put on a display for us, right over our heads for a good half an hour!

Jane Adams said...

Hi. I enjoyed your description of the nightjars and glowworms. We had the same sort of walk the other night. They are really stunning! I bet now you will be going back next year...

Jitterbug said...

You bet I'll be back next year.

The Wessex Reiver said...

A special moment when you see nighjars on the wing.