As a third year student at The
University of Nottingham, I have been studying the impact of human disturbance
on the breeding of the European nightjar (Caprimulgus
europaeus). In the summer of 2015 we surveyed the recreational trail usage
in the forest, the wildlife abundance, and breeding success of the nightjar.
The surveying of the trails was carried out by myself and a masters student
Jack Rayner under the supervision of Dr. Kate Durrant, while the monitoring of
nightjar breeding was led by the Birklands Ringing Group.
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A little friend we met on one of our surveys |
We spent June and August
surveying the forest and monitoring the nightjar from around 7am until anywhere
between 7pm and 11:30pm five days a week. We cycled around, with our food for
the day packed in our bags, and a rake threaded between our rucksack straps.
The looks we got from local cyclers was quite amusing, wondering if we were
hopelessly trying to garden the forest of Sherwood Pines. We spent half an hour
at each survey point, counting all the traffic passing, and the wildlife
spotted. The rake was used on the earth paths to track any traffic crossing
paths over a 24 hour period, rather like Sherwood Pines CSI. The rest of the
time we spent cautiously searching for nightjar nests, and ringing the chicks
born in that season. If the weather was suitable, we would set up nets to catch
the birds at around 7:30pm. It was fantastic on those evenings to hear the
nightjar males making the churring territorial call, and watch the nightjar
gliding past us before being caught in the net. The caught nightjar could then
be identified, and carefully released back to continue their evening hunt. I
thoroughly enjoyed carrying out the field work, and was inspired to find out
what is affecting the distribution of these birds.
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One of the many bees that were pollinating the heather in the forest |
In previous years from 2001 to 2014,
the nightjar of Sherwood pines have been shown to prefer a breeding habitat
incurring less frequent human disturbance, however in 2015 we found the
nightjar have shown no preference between more or less disturbed areas of the
forest. Furthermore, in 2015 there has been a higher portion of nests that
fledge chicks, as well as an altogether greater number of nests going on to
fledge chicks in areas incurring higher levels of disturbance. Through wildlife
surveying we established that predators threatening nightjar breeding such as
Corvids and Birds of Prey live in greater densities in the area of the forest
incurring a lower level of disturbance. Corvids predate on the nightjar nests,
while the Birds of Prey are thought to predate on the adult nightjar. This
difference in risk of predation could provide explanation for a lower success
in nightjar nests.
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A moth we came across quite frequently, not sure which species though? (Please comment if you know!) |
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A mother nightjar, who is rather insulted at being disturbed from her afternoon nap |
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The same mother nighjtar, whatching us with a glaring eye |
Historically, nightjar have been
shown to be less successful in breeding where human disturbance is greater. In
recent years however, we may have found that the nightjar in this forest may
have become more habituated to human disturbance, impacting the consideration
of the suitability of nightjar habitat in the future.
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A buzzard in the early morning, keeping a careful eye on us at work. |
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After seeing that Jack and I were carrying out the surveying well, the buzzard left us for more important duties for the day |
To Find out more, please take a visit on the Sherwood Pines website! http://www.sherwood-nightjars.com/the-project
Really interesting Georgina - I love Nightjars, but I only see them when going down south - some brilliant photos - I'm a bit jealous that you get to see them regularly. It's a butterfly by the way - Large Skipper
ReplyDeleteThank you, I feel a very lucky person indeed to have had the opportunity to work with these beautiful birds - had to be shared.
DeleteThank you for the help identifying the Large Skipper as well, I thought it was a moth from the way it carried it's wings on landing so was looking in completely the wrong keys!