nightjar

The summer has come and is fading away again now, but what a summer it was. This year we had something unusual for the UK in that we had a proper summer, with sun, so it will be a year fondly remembered by children, as they got to do all those things that you can't always do here, like go outside without a raincoat on. They got to play on the beach and go swimming and generally seemed to have a lovely time of it, for a change. I even dusted off my pushbike, filled the tyres with air and cycled off into the blue for a bit. Rivers, hills, it was all there and I even got to see children away from their computers and video games out enjoying themselves on bikes and skateboards, flying happily down hills without a care. Happy days indeed.

These photos were taken on the lovely warm summer evening that was the first of July. A friend who has a car came and took us all out to Woodbury Common to see the sunset. Though the sunset didn't really happen that night I was startled to hear the above sound, which I pointed out to The Maid, who correctly identified it as a Nightjar. I'm not that good at identifying birds (pointy Jackdaws), what with not being able to see very well but I can hear them, which is a great pleasure for me. Luckily my camera also records video so the moment was captured to share here for you as well. Nightjars are quite rare around here and this one was singing away just near the road. You can see the odd car going past in the video. There were other Nightjars around here too.

One of my favourite summer sounds, the Swifts, have already flown south now. On about the twelfth of August I realised that I hadn't heard a swift for a couple of days, and sure enough, after spending the day listening for them, I didn't hear any. Gone again, and with their passing so passes the summer. I hope you all have had a good summer too, or if you're on the other side, a good winter. Bad things happen, but good things happen too.