November 2, 2023 • 30 mins
Welcome Home Everybody!
In this episode, recorded in the late summer of 2020, Rob and I visit a section of Weybourne Heath on the North Norfolk Coast here in the UK, in search of a bird the song of which is matched only by its appearance and character in exciting the imagination. An African migrant, the crepuscular Nightjar, and its breathless churring song, sits comfortably in the unscientific category of magical nature.
If you'd like to keep listening visit homesounds.org where you can find all previous episodes of the HomeSounds show, as well as many more opportunities to actively listen and numerous ways to support, and get involved, with the HomeSounds project. Alternatively you look for the 'Riverlands' show on Poppyland Radio, which broadcasts live sounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the Silvergate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday evening at 10pm.
LINKS
HomeSounds
Sheringham Park
Extended Episode
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
In this episode, recorded in the late summer of 2020, Rob and I visit a section of Weybourne Heath on the North Norfolk Coast here in the UK, in search of a bird the song of which is matched only by its appearance and character in exciting the imagination. An African migrant, the crepuscular Nightjar, and its breathless churring song, sits comfortably in the unscientific category of magical nature.
If you'd like to keep listening visit homesounds.org where you can find all previous episodes of the HomeSounds show, as well as many more opportunities to actively listen and numerous ways to support, and get involved, with the HomeSounds project. Alternatively you look for the 'Riverlands' show on Poppyland Radio, which broadcasts live sounds from Woodland in Felbrigg and the Silvergate Stream in Blickling every Wednesday evening at 10pm.
LINKS
HomeSounds
Sheringham Park
Extended Episode
HomeSounds Show Supporters Club
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:38):
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo the Home Sound Show. My name
is Martin. I'm a field recordistantteacher. I'm the creator of the Home
Sounds Project and your co host forthe show along with Rob. Hello everybody.
My name is Rob and I'm aneducator and naturalist. I work for
the National Trust at Sheringham Park inNorfolk as part of the ch Children and
(01:00):
Young People Hub. The Home SoundShow invites everyone to become active environmental listeners.
Each month we visit a different location, seeking out seasonal natural sound and
focusing on a different theme. Inthis episode, recorded in late summer of
twenty twenty, Rob and I visita section of Waybourn Heath on the North
(01:21):
Norfolk coast here in the UK.We're in search of a bird, the
song of which is matched only byits appearance and character in exciting the imagination
an African migrant, A crepuscular nightjar, and its breathless churing song sits
comfortably in the unscientific category of magicalnature. Okay, good evening, everybody.
(01:52):
We're at Sheringham Park on the huntfor night jars, and you probably
can hear one in the background thatchuring call it's night Jars and I'm here
with Rob Corwick again. Hi,Rob, Hi, Hi. We came
(02:15):
here two weeks ago, three weeksago on the Hump for night Jars.
Again. It's a warmer evening soit's a bit later in the summer now
it's a cooler evening and they've starteda little bit earlier tonight the night Jos
in terms of singing. And we'rein a little patch of Sheringham Park.
(02:37):
Maybe you can describe it, Rob, Yeah, sure, so, So
this is we're just adjacent to Sherringand part here on on Waybourne Heath,
but it's part of the Sherringham ParkPark of State and it's it's an area
of plantation forest essentially that has beenwith patches cleared on a former heathlands site.
(03:00):
So all this area would have beenheathland back in time. But there
are trees here, mainly Scott's pinesand also Douglas furs that have been planted
by the Forestry Commission as a commercialcrop. And in places in the place
(03:20):
where we're standing now, there's beensome felling, so the area has been
clear fell probably about all ten yearsago. I'd say this area was felled
and so we're we're in a clearingand this kind of open habitat is perfect
for the bird we're looking for,which is the night job. And we've
(03:42):
already seen one and heard what it'sthe hearing it, I guess is you
often don't see them because they're quiteit's quite difficult to track down. They've
got this very distinctive call. Well, it's a song. Really, it's
whirring. It's known as chirring,but it's like a burring sound. Two
notes really repeated over and over again. They barely seem to pause for breath,
(04:09):
you know. It's a really unusual, almost machine like call. Yeah,
when we were here last time,we did I think I did a
seven minute recording right where he didn'tpause, yeah at all. Yeah,
and we were discussing how the heckthey do it? Yeah, yeah,
no, it's it's it's well,it's pretty unique in terms of in terms
(04:30):
of a bird a bird song,and and it's the male bird, as
in with most birds, the malebird that does the does the does the
calling and rather cue there the cheeringhas started. So this bird is sitting
in a tree. We can't actuallysee the bird, although we can more
or less tell where the where thenoise is coming from, probably from one
(04:53):
of those Scott's pines, just onthe edge of the cleared area. It's
likely to be sitting on a branch. They're unusual in that most birds sit
on a branch so sort of crosswaysperpendicular to the branch, whereas night jobs
would sit along the branch, sositting horizontally along the branch. So they're
(05:14):
actually quite difficult to spot. Theylook like part of the part of the
tree essentially, and they're incredibly crypticallycolored. Obviously the light is fading now,
it's about what's the time, it'sit's about ten to ten, so
the light's just going but they're verydifficult to see. This kind of grays
and browns is their is their backgroundcolor, and its bars and spots sort
(05:42):
of dappled plumage. Yeah, verycryptic, and they by they need that
cryptic plumage as they ground nesting.So there's likely to be there's just this
one male we reckon in the inthe area here that's been been churring.
We definitely saw it as a malewhen we well, it's only the males
that call, but they've got whitewing patches that the females lack, and
(06:05):
we can see it's quite clearly asone flew over a head. I guess
we better describe what they look likeas well. Really, yeah, the
first time you've seen one? Firsttime one? Yeah, Well, the
odd thing was it wasn't it wasjust gliding, so it wasn't it wasn't
blacking. It seemed to have verysharp tips, wind tip wing tips that
(06:25):
were like up and it reminded meof the A Turn Thunderbolt, which was
like an American tank bomber. Inmy when I was in my childhood,
we always used to want models ofthe A ten right, because it just
looked cool, and they kind oflooked like that, but it had that
(06:45):
kind of you're describing as bat like. It had that thing of sort of
like its wings were pushed forward fromits body, and it looked kind of
it looked quite creepy. Yeah,No, it's just it's a strange looking
bird. It's kind of medium sized, but bigger than a bigger than a
blackbird, smaller than a pigeon,sort of thing, hawk like shape or
(07:09):
cuckoo like shape. Really, thoselong pointed wings that you mentioned, and
an unusual flight pattern as well,with lots of just some hovering but lots
of gliding then quite flappy sort ofrising flights as well. So it's yeah,
it's it's kind of a bit otherworldly just from seeing it. Caught
(07:30):
it for a second or two,and I guess that, you know,
the otherworldly look combined with its reallystrange song have made it a real kind
of you know, it's it's ait's it's quite big in folklore, there's
lots of lots of myths about aboutnight jobs. They've really caught the imagination.
(07:51):
They've got an enigmatic bird, sothey move from from song post a
song post around their territory. Sothis is about the third spot that it's
it's it's alighted and started to callah ah ah ah no, no,
(10:56):
okay, okay. I can't stoplistening to them, so we're trying to
do a sort of peace commentary.It's pretty amazing sound, isn't he.
(11:26):
It's like it should be drilling,but it's too soft. And well,
these birds described as crepuscular, sothey are most active at the start and
the end of the night, sojust at this time, just as it's
(11:46):
getting dark, and then they maywell sing again in the early hours just
before it gets light, probably notseeing so much in the middle of the
night sort of thing. But it'sterritorial predominantly, Yeah, so's it's purely
as with all birds. Really,it's a male marking out its territory.
(12:13):
And you know that serves two functionsreally, first to advertise that he's there
and secondly to ward off any anyother males that might want to muscle in
sort of thing. So there's agood chance that he's paired with a female.
They are monogamous, so they forma sort of pair bond and the
(12:37):
female, well, they'll nest onthe ground, so they just no nest
to speak of that's built. Theyjust lay the eggs directly onto the ground,
probably one just a single clutch withtwo eggs in it. And yeah,
we don't know whether there's a femalearound, so the female maybe on
(13:01):
eggs at this time of the year, they'd like to have chicks. But
throughout the throughout the breeding period,the male will continue to hold the territory
even if you know they might bethey might be feeding chicks as well,
so and occasionally they might have twobroods. So in a good year,
(13:22):
they might get up to four fouryoung fledged potentially, and there are some
a visitor of course, not reallymentioned about their ecology in that sense yet.
So they turn up here in Mayand then set up a territory and
breed and then kind of well you'relooking in August, probably mid August,
(13:50):
certainly by September they'll have started tomigrate back to Africa and there and then
they'll spend spend the winter months inAfrica, probably kind of central southern Africa.
In fact, I think there wassome some tracking work's been done on
them, so they fit a radiotransmitter to to the bird and track it,
(14:13):
and I think they found that onewas certainly, yeah, sort of
central southern Africa was where it wasspending the winter time, and they tracked
it as it as it as itmigrated, then back to Britain the following
following spring. Still hear it.It's moved again to another another song post.
(14:35):
It seems to be quite It's gotabout what four or five different spots
that it likes to sing from,clearly, all within a you know,
a few hundred meters of each other. And the I mean the coal travels
a long distance, you know,it must. You can hear it probably
half a glometer a while, Iwould think easily, and this is like
(14:56):
this. Yeah, so it's ait's a far it travels, travels a
long distance. The call. There'salso a sort of ventriloquism part of it
in that because it's this low monotonoussound, it can be quite difficult to
(15:16):
pinpoint. And I believe sometimes asthe bird might be turning its headed as
it's seeing as well, directing thesound in different directions, so that can
have an effect. So sometimes youknow, it's the sound appears that the
bird doesn't move, but the soundsounds like it's coming from somewhere else sort
of thing. So there's that.That's what we were just recording up the
(15:37):
path here, and that's exactly whatwas going on. You could hear him,
you could hear it sounded like itwas coming closer and then drifting away
and I'm moving from you can basicallythat's what I was imagining that I could
hear it moving his head, right, So that's sort of blasting that call
(15:58):
out, yeah, in different directionsessentially, And yeah, it's a it's
a really it's a really strange bird. It has developed there's a lot of
folk lore surrounding night jars, asyou can imagine the strange sound, the
strange appearance. The Latin name iscaprimulgus, and that translates to goat sucker,
(16:23):
and they will be used to believethat it would, Yeah, it
would, it would drink goat's milkfrom from goats, and there's this sort
of supernatural sort of connotations that itwould the goat would then cease to produce
any milk after the nightjar or thegoat sucker had had had been been to
(16:47):
it sort of thing. And that'sI mean, that's it's strange that that
that myth has developed in a numberof different locations as well. So there's
not about four or five European nightjarspecies, and it's got this colloquial goat
sucker tag in different countries as well. And so I mean, the lightly
(17:07):
explanation, I guess obviously we knownow that it doesn't drink goat's milk,
but it may well be attracted towardslive stock if there's insects. It feeds
exclusively on insects, A lot ofmoths it eats, but also flies and
beetles and that sort of thing,and so insects that are attracted to the
(17:30):
live stock, obviously, then thenight Joe comes in to feed on them.
And probably if it's associating with thewith the animals, then people put
two and two together and come upwith five. Essentially. You can imagine
also because of its bat like appearance, that you might sort of make your
(17:52):
association like those the bats that feedoff cattle or you know, there are
one or two the vampiric ones.Yeah, but it has that kind of
all that sort of swirling around,the strange flight and the Yeah, so
there's yeah, so there's there's varioussort of myths associated with it. I
mean, that's exactly what it lookslike, is a kind of a classic
(18:12):
film of of Dracula holding his armand then gliding up to the window.
That's exactly the image that they lookthey look like. One of the myths
is that the night jars are theembodiment of unbaptized children. You know that
(18:36):
that may stay in nightjar form untilthe Judgment day sort of thing. But
yeah, so it's got folk namesfernowl and churn owl and then door hawk
as well, that comes from doorbeetles, so obviously feeding on feeding on
(18:57):
beetles and that sort of thing.So yeah, puckerage is another another folklore
name for it, which is alsothe name of a disease that livestock can
get as well, so that's boththe name of the causes them to stop
producing milk. So so yeah,that's again with the sort of goat sucker
(19:22):
aspects of it. Yeah, Andwe saw on the when we saw it
briefly, the the male night jowhas two white wing patches just on its
on its wings, and potentially itwill respond to white things. And the
classic way of attracting a night jaris with two pocket handkerchiefs, two white
(19:48):
pocket handkerchiefs, if you wave thosearound. I've never tried it. I
mean it's uh, it sounds unlikelyto work, but they did come quite
close to you. There's they're quiteMorris dancers, Yeah, would Morris dancers
probably would would get them the nightjaw's attention. Ah ah ah ah ah
(20:52):
ah h yah yah h h hh h h h h h. Just
(24:11):
relentless. It's really how it yeahsyou can say how it draws its breath
between between them. No idea whereit's breathing as it as it's singing.
Yeah. Absolutely, I'm going topick up some of the now. The
(24:38):
light is what's getting on for eleveno'clock and the stars are coming out.
Now. We're hearing a few othernocturnal animals in the sort of soundscape as
well, with torny owls have beencalling, and there's the bark of a
munk jack. It's some The characterof this place was so different from the
(25:03):
last time that we came. Sowe came three weeks ago, which was
a much warmer evening, and forme coming down, it was like a
sort of most of silent dell.It felt like it was so it was
(25:25):
very I felt it was very rareto find somewhere like that at that time,
and it's often that way in thehint sort of summer and the height
of summer. It's very quiet,and even just three weeks later, from
a sound perspective, the character whois completely different. The road noise is
much greater now and you can hearit kind of air, big and flowing
(25:45):
on the background. The sea ismuch more seems to be much more prominent.
The temperature changed, it's cooler,the sound is traveling differently, and
it's like a completely different places,right. That's interesting that, Yeah,
approaching it from the sort of froma you know, from that from that
(26:07):
perspective. Yeah, but then you'vegot the contrast with the night jarge just
on he's still still committed to thatone tone, that one like it's not
just not one, but you know, on that mission cutting through all that,
and it does really cut through.It's yeah, it does. It
(26:29):
travels a distance, but as acharacteristic, it's such an unusual when else
would you hear in the closest likea woodpecker or something like that, but
never for that long and never forthat same kind of quality. It's a
really it's a really rich kind ofnutty quality to the call. It's it's
a yeah, it does. Itdoes sort of rot. The volume has
(27:02):
the impression of rising and falling sometimes, doesn't it. Whether that's whether that's
just a if we talked about itmoving its head and all and things like
that, whether it whether the volumeis actually it is able to go louder
and softer, I don't know.It's a different kind of it's a different
kind of movement to a songbird orsomething where you know, it's up and
down and it's dancing around. It'skind of a it's more of a it's
(27:26):
an EBB and flow type cards,right, push and pull type thing.
Yeah, it's certainly not cooler thanthan our last visit. If you recall
we had there are lots of there'swe've got glow worms here. There's one
(27:47):
on my record, Okay, okay, because we were absolutely mob with them
previously. Yeah, they seem toreally light that red led you prefer it
to. They seem to prefer itto the green glow of the female a
glow worm, which is interesting.We've seen a few, Yeah, we've
seen afters or so female glow wormswhich can't fly, but produce the the
(28:11):
very you know, bright green light. But yeah, but but last time
we were yeah, covered in themin the in the males. But yeah,
they'll be all flying around in warmertemperatures. Of course you've been listening
(28:41):
to. If you'd like to keeplistening, visit homesounds dot org, where
you can find all previous episodes ofthe Home Sound Show, as well as
many more opportunities to actively listen andnumerous ways to support and get involved with
the Home Sound Project. Alternatively,look for the Riverlands Show on Popyland Radio,
(29:06):
which broadcasts live sounds from Woodland andFelbrig and the Silver Gate Stream in
Blickling every Wednesday evening at ten pm. Links can be found in the description
for this episode, where you willalso find an extended version of this soundwalk.
We'll be back again next month.Welcome home, everybody. M
Welcome home, everybody, and welcometo the Home Sound Show. My name
is Martin. I'm a field recordistantteacher. I'm the creator of the Home
Sounds Project and your co host forthe show along with Rob. Hello everybody.
My name is Rob and I'm aneducator and naturalist. I work for
the National Trust at Sheringham Park inNorfolk as part of the ch Children and
(01:00):
Young People Hub. The Home SoundShow invites everyone to become active environmental listeners.
Each month we visit a different location, seeking out seasonal natural sound and
focusing on a different theme. Inthis episode, recorded in late summer of
twenty twenty, Rob and I visita section of Waybourn Heath on the North
(01:21):
Norfolk coast here in the UK.We're in search of a bird, the
song of which is matched only byits appearance and character in exciting the imagination
an African migrant, A crepuscular nightjar, and its breathless churing song sits
comfortably in the unscientific category of magicalnature. Okay, good evening, everybody.
(01:52):
We're at Sheringham Park on the huntfor night jars, and you probably
can hear one in the background thatchuring call it's night Jars and I'm here
with Rob Corwick again. Hi,Rob, Hi, Hi. We came
(02:15):
here two weeks ago, three weeksago on the Hump for night Jars.
Again. It's a warmer evening soit's a bit later in the summer now
it's a cooler evening and they've starteda little bit earlier tonight the night Jos
in terms of singing. And we'rein a little patch of Sheringham Park.
(02:37):
Maybe you can describe it, Rob, Yeah, sure, so, So
this is we're just adjacent to Sherringand part here on on Waybourne Heath,
but it's part of the Sherringham ParkPark of State and it's it's an area
of plantation forest essentially that has beenwith patches cleared on a former heathlands site.
(03:00):
So all this area would have beenheathland back in time. But there
are trees here, mainly Scott's pinesand also Douglas furs that have been planted
by the Forestry Commission as a commercialcrop. And in places in the place
(03:20):
where we're standing now, there's beensome felling, so the area has been
clear fell probably about all ten yearsago. I'd say this area was felled
and so we're we're in a clearingand this kind of open habitat is perfect
for the bird we're looking for,which is the night job. And we've
(03:42):
already seen one and heard what it'sthe hearing it, I guess is you
often don't see them because they're quiteit's quite difficult to track down. They've
got this very distinctive call. Well, it's a song. Really, it's
whirring. It's known as chirring,but it's like a burring sound. Two
notes really repeated over and over again. They barely seem to pause for breath,
(04:09):
you know. It's a really unusual, almost machine like call. Yeah,
when we were here last time,we did I think I did a
seven minute recording right where he didn'tpause, yeah at all. Yeah,
and we were discussing how the heckthey do it? Yeah, yeah,
no, it's it's it's well,it's pretty unique in terms of in terms
(04:30):
of a bird a bird song,and and it's the male bird, as
in with most birds, the malebird that does the does the does the
calling and rather cue there the cheeringhas started. So this bird is sitting
in a tree. We can't actuallysee the bird, although we can more
or less tell where the where thenoise is coming from, probably from one
(04:53):
of those Scott's pines, just onthe edge of the cleared area. It's
likely to be sitting on a branch. They're unusual in that most birds sit
on a branch so sort of crosswaysperpendicular to the branch, whereas night jobs
would sit along the branch, sositting horizontally along the branch. So they're
(05:14):
actually quite difficult to spot. Theylook like part of the part of the
tree essentially, and they're incredibly crypticallycolored. Obviously the light is fading now,
it's about what's the time, it'sit's about ten to ten, so
the light's just going but they're verydifficult to see. This kind of grays
and browns is their is their backgroundcolor, and its bars and spots sort
(05:42):
of dappled plumage. Yeah, verycryptic, and they by they need that
cryptic plumage as they ground nesting.So there's likely to be there's just this
one male we reckon in the inthe area here that's been been churring.
We definitely saw it as a malewhen we well, it's only the males
that call, but they've got whitewing patches that the females lack, and
(06:05):
we can see it's quite clearly asone flew over a head. I guess
we better describe what they look likeas well. Really, yeah, the
first time you've seen one? Firsttime one? Yeah, Well, the
odd thing was it wasn't it wasjust gliding, so it wasn't it wasn't
blacking. It seemed to have verysharp tips, wind tip wing tips that
(06:25):
were like up and it reminded meof the A Turn Thunderbolt, which was
like an American tank bomber. Inmy when I was in my childhood,
we always used to want models ofthe A ten right, because it just
looked cool, and they kind oflooked like that, but it had that
(06:45):
kind of you're describing as bat like. It had that thing of sort of
like its wings were pushed forward fromits body, and it looked kind of
it looked quite creepy. Yeah,No, it's just it's a strange looking
bird. It's kind of medium sized, but bigger than a bigger than a
blackbird, smaller than a pigeon,sort of thing, hawk like shape or
(07:09):
cuckoo like shape. Really, thoselong pointed wings that you mentioned, and
an unusual flight pattern as well,with lots of just some hovering but lots
of gliding then quite flappy sort ofrising flights as well. So it's yeah,
it's it's kind of a bit otherworldly just from seeing it. Caught
(07:30):
it for a second or two,and I guess that, you know,
the otherworldly look combined with its reallystrange song have made it a real kind
of you know, it's it's ait's it's quite big in folklore, there's
lots of lots of myths about aboutnight jobs. They've really caught the imagination.
(07:51):
They've got an enigmatic bird, sothey move from from song post a
song post around their territory. Sothis is about the third spot that it's
it's it's alighted and started to callah ah ah ah no, no,
(10:56):
okay, okay. I can't stoplistening to them, so we're trying to
do a sort of peace commentary.It's pretty amazing sound, isn't he.
(11:26):
It's like it should be drilling,but it's too soft. And well,
these birds described as crepuscular, sothey are most active at the start and
the end of the night, sojust at this time, just as it's
(11:46):
getting dark, and then they maywell sing again in the early hours just
before it gets light, probably notseeing so much in the middle of the
night sort of thing. But it'sterritorial predominantly, Yeah, so's it's purely
as with all birds. Really,it's a male marking out its territory.
(12:13):
And you know that serves two functionsreally, first to advertise that he's there
and secondly to ward off any anyother males that might want to muscle in
sort of thing. So there's agood chance that he's paired with a female.
They are monogamous, so they forma sort of pair bond and the
(12:37):
female, well, they'll nest onthe ground, so they just no nest
to speak of that's built. Theyjust lay the eggs directly onto the ground,
probably one just a single clutch withtwo eggs in it. And yeah,
we don't know whether there's a femalearound, so the female maybe on
(13:01):
eggs at this time of the year, they'd like to have chicks. But
throughout the throughout the breeding period,the male will continue to hold the territory
even if you know they might bethey might be feeding chicks as well,
so and occasionally they might have twobroods. So in a good year,
(13:22):
they might get up to four fouryoung fledged potentially, and there are some
a visitor of course, not reallymentioned about their ecology in that sense yet.
So they turn up here in Mayand then set up a territory and
breed and then kind of well you'relooking in August, probably mid August,
(13:50):
certainly by September they'll have started tomigrate back to Africa and there and then
they'll spend spend the winter months inAfrica, probably kind of central southern Africa.
In fact, I think there wassome some tracking work's been done on
them, so they fit a radiotransmitter to to the bird and track it,
(14:13):
and I think they found that onewas certainly, yeah, sort of
central southern Africa was where it wasspending the winter time, and they tracked
it as it as it as itmigrated, then back to Britain the following
following spring. Still hear it.It's moved again to another another song post.
(14:35):
It seems to be quite It's gotabout what four or five different spots
that it likes to sing from,clearly, all within a you know,
a few hundred meters of each other. And the I mean the coal travels
a long distance, you know,it must. You can hear it probably
half a glometer a while, Iwould think easily, and this is like
(14:56):
this. Yeah, so it's ait's a far it travels, travels a
long distance. The call. There'salso a sort of ventriloquism part of it
in that because it's this low monotonoussound, it can be quite difficult to
(15:16):
pinpoint. And I believe sometimes asthe bird might be turning its headed as
it's seeing as well, directing thesound in different directions, so that can
have an effect. So sometimes youknow, it's the sound appears that the
bird doesn't move, but the soundsounds like it's coming from somewhere else sort
of thing. So there's that.That's what we were just recording up the
(15:37):
path here, and that's exactly whatwas going on. You could hear him,
you could hear it sounded like itwas coming closer and then drifting away
and I'm moving from you can basicallythat's what I was imagining that I could
hear it moving his head, right, So that's sort of blasting that call
(15:58):
out, yeah, in different directionsessentially, And yeah, it's a it's
a really it's a really strange bird. It has developed there's a lot of
folk lore surrounding night jars, asyou can imagine the strange sound, the
strange appearance. The Latin name iscaprimulgus, and that translates to goat sucker,
(16:23):
and they will be used to believethat it would, Yeah, it
would, it would drink goat's milkfrom from goats, and there's this sort
of supernatural sort of connotations that itwould the goat would then cease to produce
any milk after the nightjar or thegoat sucker had had had been been to
(16:47):
it sort of thing. And that'sI mean, that's it's strange that that
that myth has developed in a numberof different locations as well. So there's
not about four or five European nightjarspecies, and it's got this colloquial goat
sucker tag in different countries as well. And so I mean, the lightly
(17:07):
explanation, I guess obviously we knownow that it doesn't drink goat's milk,
but it may well be attracted towardslive stock if there's insects. It feeds
exclusively on insects, A lot ofmoths it eats, but also flies and
beetles and that sort of thing,and so insects that are attracted to the
(17:30):
live stock, obviously, then thenight Joe comes in to feed on them.
And probably if it's associating with thewith the animals, then people put
two and two together and come upwith five. Essentially. You can imagine
also because of its bat like appearance, that you might sort of make your
(17:52):
association like those the bats that feedoff cattle or you know, there are
one or two the vampiric ones.Yeah, but it has that kind of
all that sort of swirling around,the strange flight and the Yeah, so
there's yeah, so there's there's varioussort of myths associated with it. I
mean, that's exactly what it lookslike, is a kind of a classic
(18:12):
film of of Dracula holding his armand then gliding up to the window.
That's exactly the image that they lookthey look like. One of the myths
is that the night jars are theembodiment of unbaptized children. You know that
(18:36):
that may stay in nightjar form untilthe Judgment day sort of thing. But
yeah, so it's got folk namesfernowl and churn owl and then door hawk
as well, that comes from doorbeetles, so obviously feeding on feeding on
(18:57):
beetles and that sort of thing.So yeah, puckerage is another another folklore
name for it, which is alsothe name of a disease that livestock can
get as well, so that's boththe name of the causes them to stop
producing milk. So so yeah,that's again with the sort of goat sucker
(19:22):
aspects of it. Yeah, Andwe saw on the when we saw it
briefly, the the male night jowhas two white wing patches just on its
on its wings, and potentially itwill respond to white things. And the
classic way of attracting a night jaris with two pocket handkerchiefs, two white
(19:48):
pocket handkerchiefs, if you wave thosearound. I've never tried it. I
mean it's uh, it sounds unlikelyto work, but they did come quite
close to you. There's they're quiteMorris dancers, Yeah, would Morris dancers
probably would would get them the nightjaw's attention. Ah ah ah ah ah
(20:52):
ah h yah yah h h hh h h h h h. Just
(24:11):
relentless. It's really how it yeahsyou can say how it draws its breath
between between them. No idea whereit's breathing as it as it's singing.
Yeah. Absolutely, I'm going topick up some of the now. The
(24:38):
light is what's getting on for eleveno'clock and the stars are coming out.
Now. We're hearing a few othernocturnal animals in the sort of soundscape as
well, with torny owls have beencalling, and there's the bark of a
munk jack. It's some The characterof this place was so different from the
(25:03):
last time that we came. Sowe came three weeks ago, which was
a much warmer evening, and forme coming down, it was like a
sort of most of silent dell.It felt like it was so it was
(25:25):
very I felt it was very rareto find somewhere like that at that time,
and it's often that way in thehint sort of summer and the height
of summer. It's very quiet,and even just three weeks later, from
a sound perspective, the character whois completely different. The road noise is
much greater now and you can hearit kind of air, big and flowing
(25:45):
on the background. The sea ismuch more seems to be much more prominent.
The temperature changed, it's cooler,the sound is traveling differently, and
it's like a completely different places,right. That's interesting that, Yeah,
approaching it from the sort of froma you know, from that from that
(26:07):
perspective. Yeah, but then you'vegot the contrast with the night jarge just
on he's still still committed to thatone tone, that one like it's not
just not one, but you know, on that mission cutting through all that,
and it does really cut through.It's yeah, it does. It
(26:29):
travels a distance, but as acharacteristic, it's such an unusual when else
would you hear in the closest likea woodpecker or something like that, but
never for that long and never forthat same kind of quality. It's a
really it's a really rich kind ofnutty quality to the call. It's it's
a yeah, it does. Itdoes sort of rot. The volume has
(27:02):
the impression of rising and falling sometimes, doesn't it. Whether that's whether that's
just a if we talked about itmoving its head and all and things like
that, whether it whether the volumeis actually it is able to go louder
and softer, I don't know.It's a different kind of it's a different
kind of movement to a songbird orsomething where you know, it's up and
down and it's dancing around. It'skind of a it's more of a it's
(27:26):
an EBB and flow type cards,right, push and pull type thing.
Yeah, it's certainly not cooler thanthan our last visit. If you recall
we had there are lots of there'swe've got glow worms here. There's one
(27:47):
on my record, Okay, okay, because we were absolutely mob with them
previously. Yeah, they seem toreally light that red led you prefer it
to. They seem to prefer itto the green glow of the female a
glow worm, which is interesting.We've seen a few, Yeah, we've
seen afters or so female glow wormswhich can't fly, but produce the the
(28:11):
very you know, bright green light. But yeah, but but last time
we were yeah, covered in themin the in the males. But yeah,
they'll be all flying around in warmertemperatures. Of course you've been listening
(28:41):
to. If you'd like to keeplistening, visit homesounds dot org, where
you can find all previous episodes ofthe Home Sound Show, as well as
many more opportunities to actively listen andnumerous ways to support and get involved with
the Home Sound Project. Alternatively,look for the Riverlands Show on Popyland Radio,
(29:06):
which broadcasts live sounds from Woodland andFelbrig and the Silver Gate Stream in
Blickling every Wednesday evening at ten pm. Links can be found in the description
for this episode, where you willalso find an extended version of this soundwalk.
We'll be back again next month.Welcome home, everybody. M
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