Nightjar ringing

I was out last night ringing Nightjars. Having annually made the trip to see them in the right habitat for many years this was the first time seeing them so close and in the hand. They are crepuscular aerial insectivores so most active at dusk and dawn and it’s usually been a dusk trip for me to see them hawking over forest mixed with heather after moths and other flying insects often just a silhouette against a midsummer night sky. Their gu-wip call and wing-clapping are bizarre sounds which would be unnerving if you didn’t know what it was but their other enigmatic “churring” call resonates for considerable distance and seems somewhat mechanical. Their Latin name Caprimulgus means Goatsucker and originates from folklore that the birds suckled milk from goats which we now know is wrong, but the name sticks. However, I still find them and their habitat to ooze with mystery and this was reinforced yesterday by looking at their morphology. They are extremely wide-mouthed designed to catch insects in flight. Added to that they have whisker-like rictal bristles to extend that catching area whilst in flight. All that collision with insects means a messy face but their central front claw (on the inside) is serrated acting like a comb to clean their bristles. Those that have fed well have a solid lump in their lower stomach which is a compact “mothball”. These can be regurgitated for the young whilst in the nest. In the hand they also do a weird defense reflex of hissing and gawping and flaring their tail. Once ringed the birds were placed back on a log so that they could acclimatise to the night and carry on as usual, with the addition of a BTO ring, and in some cases a transmitter device which is designed only to stay on their central tail feather for a couple of weeks. What an amazing species.