![]() Where the heather is uniform and lacks gaps, uprooting two or three plants together can create one to two metre-square gaps.How much old heather is left will vary by site, but 10–20 per cent of the heather at this age, and distributed around the site, should provide sufficient opportunities for nesting. Ensure that a good proportion of old mature heather is retained with naturally occurring small gaps, in areas that are free from disturbance.Significantly, fewer chicks are raised to adulthood on sites with high levels of disturbance than on undisturbed sites. There is increasing evidence to suggest that nightjars are vulnerable to disturbance, for example by dogs, which flush the adult from the nest allowing predators to take the eggs or chicks. In coppice woods, nightjars nest in large recently cut coups (clearings) and continue to occupy them until the canopy covers much of the ground, in, for example, four to five years, depending on the rate of regrowth of the coppice. Restocked clearings are abandoned as the tree canopy closes over the open ground around seven to eight years after planting, although these may be used if the crop is slow growing, for up to 12 years. In conifer forest clearings, clear-fells and restocks, especially on former heathland, the vegetation structure is like that of heathland, augmented with lying brash, which provides added concealment. Scattered trees are used to sing from and to roost in. This offers shelter, camouflage and seclusion from potential predators. On lowland heathland, nests are usually located in small, naturally occurring gaps in deep heather in dry heath, with a scatter of plant debris, but not live grasses. These include wetlands – such as reedbeds, fens and grazing marsh – native woodlands, mature hedges and old pasture. Although they feed over heathland and along forest rides and edges, nightjars are most successful when there is a range of food-rich habitats at hand. They usually raise two broods of one to two chicks in secluded patches of bare ground within low, often shrubby, vegetation, before migrating south in September or October.įoraging is mainly at dusk and dawn, and through the night when they need to, on moths and other large flying insects, which they catch mainly on the wing. Nightjars are summer visitors to the UK, arriving in mid-May.
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