The conditions looked good for St Aldhelms this morning with light winds & sunny conditions. I was expecting the first Merlin of the Autumn given the date, as well as, a few Autumnal migrants. It all looked hopeful with a few Chiffchaffs and Whitethroats by the car park & more by the open barn. I tried a side track & flushed what I assumed would be a small Sparrowhawk from the track. It stayed low as I raised the bins, but it was too small & slim and almost as soon as I got the bins on it, it landed on the track again. I was now looking at a cracking Nightjar about twenty metres ahead of me. I hadn't noticed any white in the wing or tail, so it wasn't an adult male. Wow: St Aldhelms & Valleys Tick number 180. A Nightjar has never been on my radar for St Aldhelms, except for possibly on a seawatch hawking over the sea. This sounds silly, but that's how St Aldhelms stalwart Steve Morrison saw his first St Aldhelms Nightjar: albeit it was back in the last 80s when Birders didn't realise Nightjars fed over the sea in the daytime & thought they might be Matsudaira's storm petrels. I lifted the camera, but it was watching me & it lifted off the track & flew around thirty or more metres & disappeared from view. Fortunately, as I got closer I could see it had landed back on the track. I took some distant photos, then walked forward two or three metres to take some more shots.
I stopped to take the final set of photos before backing out & leaving it in peace. But as I moved back, it lost its nerve & flew again. I saw it fly along the track before appearing to head off into some trees. I retraced my steps to check out a side-track. I had only been there a few minutes, when I heard two noisy walkers chatting as they came down the track. Well they would certainly have flushed it, if it hadn't spooked itself. After I finished on the side track, I headed back along where I had last seen it, to give the fields a scan. To my surprise, the Nightjar was sitting on a fence post only a few metres off the track. I walked past it and stopped for some more photos. It was watching me, but comfortable as I took the extra photos. I checked the fields, but there was nothing of note in them. The only problem was I needed to walk back past the Nightjar to collect my scope and head back towards the main track. I deliberately looked the other way as I walked past the Nightjar, but that wasn't good enough. It spooked again and flew a few metres deeper into cover. Still at least it won't be disturbed where it landed for the rest of the day.
According to Steve Morrison's All Time St Aldhelms & Valleys list on Bubo, this appears to be only the fifth record for the patch. Albeit given their camouflage and nocturnal nature, there will be other Nightjar occurrences that were overlooked. By early afternoon, I had added a few Wheatears, a Spotted Flycatcher, a few Blackcaps and a female Reed Bunting, but nothing else more unusual. The Nightjar had used up all my luck for the day, but it was worth it.