Nightjars back in Yorkshire in record numbers

More than 500 pairs of the elusive bird

July 2011: The elusive nightjar - under threat of extinction just 40 years ago - has once again returned to North Yorkshire's woodlands in record numbers.

COURTSHIP: The nightjar is thriving in North Yorkshire

The nocturnal bird, famed for its churring love call and aerobatic courtship dance, has made local Forestry Commission woods its key summer stronghold in northern Britain.

A survey underway in 3,000-hectare (7,500-acre) Langdale Forest, between Whitby and Pickering, has so far recorded 73 churring males with two more areas to be checked, meaning last summer's record numbers are set to be toppled.

Pickering-based Mick Carroll, from the Forest Bird Study Group, now estimates that there could be well over 500 nightjar pairs in the 22,400-hectare (56,000-acre) public forest estate in North Yorkshire.

The birds have a magical quality
Mick Douch, Chief Wildlife Ranger, said: ‘Nightjars are active at night and superbly well camouflaged so they are incredibly difficult to study. But what isn't in doubt is the bird's magical quality, which makes a mid-summer night in the forest so special.'

Other nightjar hotspots this year include Wykeham Forest, near Scarborough, and Boltby Wood, near Thirsk.

A key to the bird's improved fortunes is the availability of felled areas which provide an ideal ground nesting environment, offering shelter and insect life to feed on.

Mick Carroll said: ‘We're bidding to find out more about nightjars by ringing some the birds each year. Long term that may help answer whether the same individual occupies the same territory after returning from winter migration. Birds are doing well in the forests and even cuckoos and turtles doves seem around in greater numbers. But the soaring nightjar numbers are a real headline grabber.'