Sitting at home today doing my usual domestic duties I'm joined unexpectedly by my father-in-law, my son and my granddaughter and then the news breaks of a Common Nighthawk report in Oxfordshire. I called the Jims and put them on standby to await news of its accuracy and twitch ability. These issues were quickly cleared up and access seemed ok too in exchange for a tenner, so I made my excuses and we set off for the 90mile trip around the M25/M40 arriving on site at 2pm to find around a hundred others already on site. We each dropped a ten-pound note in the bucket and within seconds were enjoying the fantastic vagrant from a distance of no more than twenty feet away. It sat on the fence all afternoon shuffling from looking left to looking right and back again every so often and would lift its head and open an eye every time a Red Kite flew over.
The bird was last reported as taking to the skies just before 7pm.
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| Common Nighthawk |
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| Common Nighthawk |
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| Common Nighthawk |
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| Common Nighthawk |
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| Common Nighthawk |
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| Nighthawk |
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| Nighthawk |
The news on site was that a resident had seen the bird and reported it to the RSPCA thinking it was sick as it was just sitting on the fence and of course it was quickly ID'd as Nighthawk and news put out. Well done to all involved locally for getting news out, arranging viewing and for the charity collection work.
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| Sitting on the fence |
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| Some of the crowd |
It's proving quite a year and this is my ninth life tick so far taking the life list to 435 and the year list to 240
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