Nightjars are one of the most mysterious of all birds. No wonder they were called Puck-bird. People were really terrified of them. These were powerful spirits, invading the human world in that frightening moment as the world went into darkness with all the danger that brought.
To the Romans they were gabbes racce corpse hounds that haunted the dead and removed them, as other strange birds that called at night such as wild geese. Christians converted gabbes racce into the Angel Gabriel, who cleansed the world of evil in the same way.
Puckeridge, another name, would as surely be an omen of death if one crossed over your path. In that case I should have died half a century ago. On the other hand, looking on the bright side a man might merely remain a batchelor. So far so wrong.
What is left then, of this extraordinary bird? Well, if you keep cows, but especially goats, keep it well away from these animals, because the Goatsucker will drain them before dawn. With that enormous gaping mouth it will easily take a teat as easily as a calf or kid and your children will go hungry.
So ingrained was the idea that 18th century taxonomists put goat into Latin and called the nightjar: Caprimulgus. But by 1870 truth was dawning. 'The harmless, unoffending Goatsucker' wrote one Victorian birdwatcher, 'from the time of Aristotle down to the present day, has been in disgrace with man. Father has handed it down to son, author to author, that this nocturnal thief subsists by milking the flocks. Poor injured little bird of night, how sadly hast thou suffered, and how foul a stain has in attention to facts put upon they character! Thou hast never robbed man of any part of his property, nor deprived the kid of a single drop of milk'.
Waterton went on to describe what he had watched one bright moonlight night, at a farmyard. It was a very warm night, and mosquitoes and flies were swarming around the bellies of cattle, sheep and goats. Fluttering around them and then landing beneath, was a nightjar which was feasting on these insects. Especially open to attack were the udders, and the nightjar was able to reach up and catch flies off the teats of sheep and goats from a standing position. All the animals stood quite still as they were being deloused.
"How quiet they stood, how sensible they seemed of his good offices for they neither struck him, not hit him with their tails nor trod on him, nor tried to drive him away as an uncivil intruder. Were you to direct him and inspect his stomach, you would find no milk there, only the flies which had been annoying the herd."
Scientists today have discovered much more. The stomach of one bird contained 1,000 insects of 50 species. Another contained 500 mosquitoes and a third had 2,175 flying ants. Any flying insect may be taken from grasshoppers to moths.
There are many different species in the world: swallow-tailed, scissor-tailed, lyre-tailed and ladder-tailed, while whip-poor-wills are part of American folk-lore. Over there the common nighthawk is now more common in cities like Detroit than countryside, liking the flat urban roofs for nest sites, as well as the flies associated with urban life. Close relatives are the swifts, which also like human habitations in Britain and which nest under the eaves of town and village houses.
If you see nightjars this month on Iping or Ambersham commons you will think you are looking at a very large black swift. You will see the white marks on the male's wings and tail, you may see him (and also her sometimes) clap his long wings together over his back: up to 25 times. And you will certainly hear his weird song which has given the European nightjar its other country names: eve-jar and churr-owl. The song has been likened to a two-stroke motorbike and can be heard up to half a mile away.
This week the male should be brooding their two babies while the female broods her second clutch of two eggs next to him. Their courtship is wonderful to see. The female is very coy and bashful, lowering her head as he fondles her neck. After a while both begin to coax the other to overcome shyness and finally he begins to jerk upwards in flight, tail spread wide, then all at once glides down onto her back, his wings held in a V above.
I shall be talking about this bird tonight at my RSPB talk at the Newell Centre, Chichester at 7.30pm, together with slides of scores more birds of Sussex, if you want to find out more or know where to go see them all.
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