Nightjar - 1994

Breeding summer visitor and passage migrant. Not recorded from October to March

The Nightjar was regarded by Mathew (1894) as a common summer visitor, to be found breeding all over Pembrokeshire. Lockley et al. (1949) similarly assessed it as a fairly common and widely distributed summer visitor that occasionally bred on the larger offshore islands.

Observers began to note a rapid decrease during the 1960s, part of a national decline, and by 1971 they could be found at only eight sites. None were proved to be breeding during the Breeding Birds Survey of 1984-1988 but `churring birds' were heard in five localities, so the Nightjar might just be hanging on as a Pembrokeshire breeder.

They are still recorded occasionally on passage at the coast and the islands. The earliest recorded arrival is 26 April and latest departure 25 September.

Donovan J.W. & Rees G.H (1994), Birds of Pembrokeshire