Tim writes: Most people think of Nightjar as a bird of lowland heaths but this one was high in the Pennines at well over 1000 feet above sea level in Yorkshire. The second half of May is my usual time for Nightjars but ill-health meant I wasn’t fit enough this year. So I went out in late summer to see if I could find and photograph any of my local Nightjars. I was quite pleased with this shot which showed the Pennine backdrop, and you can even see his feet if you zoom in.
The scientific name Caprimulgus translates as goat-milker from the ancient belief (dating back before Aristotle) that Nightjars fed from goat udders, which caused them to stop producing milk, and eventually to go blind. This seems to be based on the simple observation that they have large mouths that might be capable of clamping on a goat’s udder, but the large mouth is really to catch insects with. Because milk is a mammalian product, birds have never evolved the enzyme lactase that enables them to digest milk. It was fat that the Blue Tits used to steal off the top of the milk, and they stopped feeding from milk bottles once our tastes changed to low-fat semi-skimmed milk.
This photograph was taken well after sunset (which is when they become active) without flash and hand held.
It was taken with a Nikon D500 at 1/800 second with a Nikkor 300mm f4 lens at f4 ISO 6400.
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