Wednesday 18 June 2014

A late evening at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire - June 18, 2014

Andy Howes had arrange a trip to a site where he had seen both Long-eared Owl and Nightjar last week.

We arrived in the car park after negotiating the closers on the A5 at 21:20.  When we were all ready we walked down a track to an open area on the heath.


Our first bird was a Roding Woodcock as we approached the more open area and we possibly saw as many as five birds during the visit.   Steve then picked up a distant Hobby that eventually flew almost right over us and a Kestrel hunted nearby.  As the light faded a Nightjar was heard calling and we retraced our steps and eventually had brief views of the bird as it flew just in front of us before disappearing.  It continued churring and was heard giving a single note call presumably as it took to flight or whilst in flight but it wasn’t seen again.  A second bird was heard from the car park as we were preparing to leave.  A Long-eared Owl was observed perched on a fence post alongside the track on several occasions and two were seen flying across the heath in fading light.  There has been at least five seen of which we saw three.

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