Wednesday 23 July 2014

Chobham Common - 22 July 2014

Another glorious day with a forecast for low wind in the evening. We were joined by PW and set out to collect more data on of the Nightjars of Chobham Common.

It was a little breezier than we had hoped but we were still fortunate enough to catch a youngster, not long fledged, and the smallest bird that we've seen so far this year. Nightjars have a reflective layer within the eye to aid night vision, but we noted milkier appearance of the eyes of this individual as seen in photograph below.

 Nightjar 3F

 Pin showing very clearly on emergent flight feathers.

 Upper wing ( no larger buff patches on outermost primaries so indicative of female)

 Tail feathers- also consistent with female pattern.

Total: 1
Nightjar - 1