Lost & Found
Common nighthawk, Wantage
Lost rarities can appear in some unusual places on migration. Town centres, supermarket car parks and industrial estates may all feature; and there’s even a famous photo from Orkney of a Tengmalm’s owl discovered on the seat of a disused outdoor toilet!
A garden fence at a coastal or isolated island hotspot would not constitute such an unusual setting for a rarity, but when it’s 100km inland in a suburban Oxfordshire town and the bird in question is a juvenile common nighthawk from North America, then it suddenly all seems rather improbable.
Yet this was the scenario on 26th September 2022 when a concerned homeowner in Wantage sought help for the strange, stationary bird on her fence. It must have looked ill sat there for so long with its eyes half closed.
The nighthawk is a member of the nightjars, a large family of nocturnal aerial hawkers that rely on their cryptic camouflage when they rest up during the day. But this bird couldn’t have been more obvious, perched as it was alongside a residential parking lot.
As news spread, the site was visited throughout the day by up to 600 enthusiasts from around the country, without incident and with a collection that raised £4,000 for local charities. Confident of its camouflage, the nighthawk seemed unfazed by the attention and stayed until dusk, flying just after sunset. It was not seen again.
There are about 25 previous UK sightings of this species. The birds’ intended route to South America is south-east via the Caribbean where they can be blown off course by tropical storms.