The Nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) is a summer migrant bird of nocturnal habits rarely seen but with a highly distinctive churring call. Unsurprisingly its nocturnal behaviour has attracted much folklore and myth including many local names being attached to it across the country. For example, in Cornwall the nightjar is know as a Night Churr after its churring call, in Gloucestershire it is known as a Fern Hawk from its nocturnal habits and hawk-like silhouette and most bemusing of all its local name in Somerset, Surrey and Sussex is Goat Sucker after the belief that it takes milk from goats during the night! This comes from a supposed association with a weird spirit of the dark, Puck who troubled folk travelling home, or stole into their yards at night to make mischief, including stealing milk! The nightjar's Latin name Caprimulgus literally translates into 'goatsucker'.

Although the goat sucking myth has been thoroughly debunked by science the habits of the nightjar itself are still a bit of a mystery. Nightjars, although traditionally associated with lowland heathland, are increasingly utilising clearfell areas in conifer forests. A 1992 survey revealed that 50% of the total population of nightjars were now found in this type of forest.

In light of the loss of lowland heathland (40% of England's lowland heathland has been destroyed since the 1950's) it may be that clearfell areas in conifer forests are becoming even more important for the success of the nightjar in the UK. The option of continuous cover forestry management where large clearfells are not created may result in a future decline in nightjar populations in some parts of the UK.

As the Nightjar is what we in the UK call a 'priority species' due to a decline in range and numbers (although numbers have increased considerably in recent years), knowing more about how they use their territory to forage and breed would seem a good place to start to be able to put the information to use in aiding their conservation.

Here at Brecknock Wildlife Trust we joined forces with the Forestry Commission and ornithological consultant Tony Cross to create a research study to find out exactly how nightjar were utilising clearfell areas in four upland coniferous forests in mid-Wales. We were fortunate enough to receive funding for this two year study from the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) through their Species Challenge Fund.

A call was therefore put out to the masses via Brecknock magazine for volunteers to help with this study and the summers of 2004 & 2005 were very busy times for our consultant Tony Cross, my predecessor Charles Morgan, and his band of merry volunteers who spent a considerable amount of time tramping around forests in mid-Wales at night following the nightjars. The birds were caught under license using mist nets and small radiotracking devices were fitted to their central tail feathers (see inset picture). They could then theoretically be pin-pointed by radio-tracking at distances up to 2 kilometres away.

In practise the nature and terrain of the habitat limited the distance over which signals could be received to no more than 500 metres. The study was however able to build up a picture of the extent to which nightjars were using the forest habitat as nesting habitat and as foraging habitat.

Nightjars were found to be breeding successfully in clearfells at altitudes of 300-400m with double brooding frequent. The minimum size of occupied clearfells was 5 hectares with a mean size of 23 hectares. The majority of foraging, particularly when provisioning chicks, was in areas in close proximity to the nest, usually in open areas within the forest itself. Radio-tracked nightjars did leave the forest for periods of up to 6 hours when they were not breeding or had large young in the nest but radiotracking failed to identify distant foraging areas and habitats used.

Using these results we can now input into Forestry Design Plans what we think would help create breeding and foraging areas for nightjar. For example the period in which a particular area is suitable for nightjars can be extended by creating a mosaic of clearfells, all at different ages within a contiguous block preferably on the tops of plateaux areas or large flat-bottomed basins or cwms. When restocking, small patches/corridors should be left unplanted to give a more open habitat and trackside verges should be extended to create suitable nest-sites and sheltered feeding areas in more mature plantations.

Although not all these management guidelines may be possible in all situations this type of research is, we hope, going to prove useful to aid in the continued recovery of the species and is something all the people involved in this project should be proud of. Particular thanks to all of the volunteers involved with this research without whose help we would not have been able to carry out this study.

A full copy of this report is available for viewing in the Trust office.

Details on the nightjar's UK status are available on http://www.ukbap.org.uk/UKPlans.aspx?ID=186

(Folklore and alternative names for the nightjar were obtained from Francesca Greenoak's 'British Birds their Folklore, Names and Literature' a very entertaining read!!)