sgbeachbum: large-tailed nightjar @ bukit brown

Sunday, February 19, 2012

large-tailed nightjar @ bukit brown - Feb2012

Was passing by Lornie Road and decided to detour into the Bukit Brown cemetary since i had never been there at night. At about 10pm, the birdsong heard during the day was gone. All the birds must have been snoozing away up in the trees. There was only the sound of crickets and a rhythmic 'chlok, chlok, chlok' reverberating throughout that part of the cemetary. This sound i knew to be coming from a nightjar which would be active at night.

As i was driving along slowly, something, which looked like a bunch of leaves on the road, exploded from the ground in front of the car. As it flew away, i thought that it must have been a nightjar as they had a habit of keeping still until the intruder was almost upon it and then flying off in an instant. Moving along slowly, i came across another nightjar sitting on the road about 3 metres after the first one which had flown off. This one did not fly off eventhough the car was about two and a half metres away.

Chancing it, I dimmed the headlights, got out and approached the sitting bird expecting it to fly away at any second. Instead, it kept still and i was able to get very close to it. I was close enough to touch it and it still did not move. I guess when i moved slightly back, it decided that that was the time to fly off. It seemed to jump up and fly off in a micro-moment and disappeared silently into the night sky. The bird had an incredibly red eye-shine quite befitting a bird which was active at night and especially in an old cemetary.

I wondered why the two nightjars were sitting on the road instead of on the grassy patch close-by. I guess it could be because it had rained during the day and the ground must still have been damp and cold. Perhaps the birds were taking advantage of the drier and warmer conditions on the road.