Trip reports
Snelsmore Common Country Park, Berkshire by Paul Moon
Saturday, 2 June 2007
From the car park we saw Coal Tit, Robin, Blackbird, Nuthatch, Wood Pigeon, Song Thrush, and Swift. A little way down the tree lined path a Long Tailed Tit flock moved through but nothing scarcer could be found amongst them. We added Great Tit and a Willow Warbler was calling nearby.
As we reached the first clearing before the watch tower, a scan of the tree tops produced a pair of Mistle Thrushes and our first Tree Pipit, Goldcrest, Chiffchaff and Chaffinch were also heard. We then continued round into a clearing where Chris and Caroline both had had amazing views of Woodlarks only a few hours before, feeding amongst the heather. The rest of the group had to wait a little longer before we located this party and all enjoyed 'telescoped' views of the birds feeding along the ground, then one perched high up and two flyby's showing the bird's stubby tails. A lone Lapwing also cruised overhead.
We followed the tarmac footpath and found another Woodlark perched in a lone holly bush; it was delivering its beautiful melancholy song and showing its supercilia join at back of the neck. With dusk fast approaching consensus was to return back the clearing east of the watch tower to wait, if we were lucky, for the prized Nightjar. With the light still good at 2120 the first of two Woodcocks began roding every few minutes, they flew over are heads amazingly low and constantly calling, they covered entire laps of the park. Jackdaws were off to roost and Pheasant was also heard in the failing light. A few minutes latter a large bat (probably a noctule) was observed feeding and flying at tree top height.
Finally at 2139 we heard the churring of a Nightjar. It appeared to be coming from a stand of three pines. We moved closer to the stand of pines and I put my telescope onto the exposed lower branches and to my amazement saw the Nightjar sitting along the branch and churring. All the group then managed to either see the bird through telescopes or binoculars, it was possible to make out the white markings on the wing. It then disappeared, but still kept churring from close by. A few minutes later we heard it churring of to our right. This then stopped and started again from another location but we never saw the bird in flight. Happy with our fill and the near dark conditions we headed back to the car park. A lucky few did have a brief view of the bird in flight and another few heard the wing claps associated with display flight.
We arrived back at the cars and left at 2230 after an excellent nights birding. Many thanks to Chris and Caroline for organising and leading the event.