Stories

MISSION “JUSTICE FOR NIGHTJARS!” - ALL 10 NIGHTJARS IN INDIA COVERED WITHIN 1 YEAR!

Last year, I had a target (to find all the owls in one year) and that gave me a purpose. This year I had a purpose (to be fair and equal to the Nightjars, who like Owls, are also seen usually at night only) and that gave me a target!

In early months of 2022, when my owls (and birding overall!) mission had just started, I had been to Jhalana (the leopard reserve at Jaipur). At the start of the safari, my guide Ved Prakash excitedly conveyed to me in front of my family, “Sir, the nightjar is here, and I will show it to you!” I was too embarrassed to ask him “huh…what is a nightjar?!” in front of my family who by now had started to share in their respective circles that “my dad / my husband is an ace wildlife photographer!” I simply assumed it’s the name of some new leopard in the park, till the guide took us below a tree and said “there it is!”. Now leopards are often found on trees – so I started looking for those camouflaged leopard spots but found nothing! “Where?” I asked in a hushed tone afraid the leopard might jump to some other tree! “There sir, right in front of you!”. It was then I noticed some creature on a branch of the tree which looked just like a swollen extension of that branch! Now, I was too embarrassed to ask the guide if it was a rodent or a reptile or a mammal or a bird! I decided to Google it later. In my excitement of seeing 2-3 leopards later that evening, I forgot about the nightjar.

Nocturnal birds like owls again, also known as goatsuckers! But they don’t store the blood of goats in jars, it is because of the “jarring” noise they make at night-time, they are known as nightjars. Of the roughly 100 species of nightjars and its allies in the world, 10 are found in India. Short beaks, short feet and large eyes, large whiskers or bristles (on most) are the usual characteristics. Masters of camouflage – they might often be sitting right in front but difficult to spot! And during night time when they sit motionless on the roads pretending that they are invisible– you cannot but fall in love with them. And so this was my second love story with the Nightjars this time after my first love story of the Owls!

Fast forward in September end of 2022, I was now reasonably familiar with most bird species and was also well aware about nightjars. I was in Andaman for my owls and due to the helicopter ride to Nicobar being postponed, I had one extra night to go “hunting”. Shakti, my guide there, suggested to look for Andaman nightjar. More than the nightjar, it was the thrill of going hunting again at night that made me excited (you see by now I was a “night owler” junkie!). When I saw the Andaman nightjar from close quarters, sitting so very quietly and timidly, I immediately felt sorry and empathy for it! Empathy more so because I realised that it was a much “poorer cousin” of the owls! Everyone looked for owls in the night, and the nightjars came as an additional benefit. Like buying lots of groceries from the store and the storekeeper finally handing an Eclairs chocolate to make us happy! Nightjars were the Eclairs! It was then that I decided that I will not have them as “Eclairs” but rather give them their full due, respect, fairness, equality and set myself the exact same target as for owls! I will see and photograph all the 10 nightjar species in India within a year! As I was ridden with guilt already, I decided to make it up to them a little more. I decided that half the nightjars (5 of them each) I will see during daytime and half I will see at night! I had upped the ante, and upped my blood pressure! That night, I covered the first nightjar – the Andaman nightjar.

In early December of 2022, I was in Thattekad with the passionate owler Danish. It turned out his passions extended for nightjars too! In heavy rains, wearing raincoats that barely saved some parts of my body from the rains, we looked for the Ceylon Bay Owl during night (which I had covered just on arriving at Thattekad during daytime though), as well as for the 2 nightjars: Jerdon’s and Great Eared. A cyclone had just hit the region, and the nightjars proved why the poorer cousins are often the braver ones! We did not find the Bay Owl venturing out during any of the 3 nights there but the Jerdon’s nightjar had no such fear! After getting my second nightjar, I was hoping to find the Great Eared too, and hopefully during daytime to keep my promised balance! Danish knew of one place up in the hillocks which was often frequented by the wild elephants. If I had braved leopards, snakes and bears for the owls, I felt it as a moral obligation to brave the elephants for the nightjar! We climbed up the hillock, and started to look for it. Masters of camouflage, this nightjar having a dark brownish plumage was sitting low on the damp muddy ground. It was only due to the sharp eyes of Danish that I could spot it. This one looked very different from the others I had seen so far. 3 down.

Then came a lull and all the euphoria of completing the owls mission etc! Once the owls hangover had receded and the vacuum in my life welcomed me, I started my usual data analysis for the rest of the nightjars. Greater Rann of Kutch was THE place! For Sykes’s nightjar and the Indian nightjar. There was a chance of seeing the Sykes’s during day time also, as Jugal Tiwari ji indicated. For a full day from morning till late in the night we searched and searched and not a single nightjar! It was déjà vu for me again! My schedules were tight. I had only one more day and night left for my “targets” (yes, I was again a “victim” of my own targets!). During the daytime on next day, again no luck. It all came down to that one night that I had left. We drove a long distance that night to a place near a dam. The nightjars love to gobble all the small insects and there were plenty of them in that area. We did a quick inspection and drive-around of the place in the evening before the sun set.

Then as night set in, we drove slowly on a dirt track. Within a few minutes, the first success – Indian nightjar. A few minutes later, the second target made its appearance on the road - the Sykes’s nightjar! Mission accomplished! The good thing about life is that if it troubles you on most days, there are some nights when it can throw a pleasant surprise. This was one such night when the day-time dreams were coming true! We saw a larger nightjar flying around – Tiwari ji and I both had a feeling it could be the Savanna nightjar – which was in my target for Haryana during the coming monsoons! But a nightjar at hand’s length is much better than two in the bushes of Haryana hinterlands! We waited and soon it obliged. On the road again – allowing me to crawl very near to it. Score was now 6/10 but the other target score (5-5 for daytime/nighttime) was now looking very skewed at 5-1! Meant I had to find the remaining 4 nightjars during daytime! A near to impossible task! I had begun to think the nightjars project as being a little less challenging and complex compared to the owls one – but there it was, fate felt mercy on me and presented me with an interesting challenge again!

The real difficult one now was going to be the Grey nightjar. Not seen that frequently and normally found high in the Himalayan regions and during nighttime. Odds were heavily stacked against me. I went to places like Munsiyari and Saatal in the cold of February but there were no sightings. There were few who had heard the call coming from “high in the hills”. This did not help me though! I turned to my old confidantes, Rajesh Panwar ji and Shubham. We decided that Manila in Uttaranchal would be a good place to try and find it. So early in April I landed in Manila during a weekend. I had one night again only. However, the challenge was to find it in daytime! (My back-up plan, in case we found Grey nightjar at night only, was to go and find the Savanna again during daytime in Haryana)!

“It is going to be very difficult,” Shubham said. After the owls mission, every time I hear the word “difficult”, some naughty neurons in my brain somehow start jumping with joy! We drove right after lunch to the forested areas. We got down from the car and started walking aimlessly. Within 5 minutes, we saw it - was akin to winning a lottery! The Grey nightjar – on an open perch next to the road in broad daylight! I first thanked God and then clicked the beautiful looking nightjar which was half asleep. For the rest of the 2 days and the night, we travelled far and wide but never saw it again!

During the night there, we heard the sound of the Large-tailed nightjar. Leopards were frequent in that area. The sky looked like a planetarium with millions of glittering stars. We soon saw a pair of the nightjars under the starlit night! They kept exchanging their positions at their two favourite spots while we kept running after them. Nightjars are the kings of night. If they don’t want you to find them, you won’t! I did click a few photographs from afar but my goal was different. I had to see this one in day time also. I knew that there was a good chance of seeing the Jungle nightjar and the European nightjar during daytime (based on past records) – hence the Large-tailed nightjar was going to be decider to level my 5-5 score! Early next morning, we came back at the same place. The hills looked very different in the day time. We saw a jackal moving around the place – this was not good news. However we had made some mental markers of the two places where the nightjars kept coming back last night, and assumed it would be near to these two places. We were right! We found it lying still on the ground camouflaged completely with the dull brown dry dead leaves around it. I got my score now to 8/10 and 5-3!

The last 2 were more predictable. However I had realised by now that three things in life are never predictable: wife’s mood, government’s tax policy, and behaviour of birds! I decided to cover the Jungle nightjar first – back in Jhalana during an afternoon safari. This time I was in control though and the same guide much more in awe of my knowledge! Score now 9/10 and 5-4! For the final one, European nightjar, it had to be a long wait – as it books its ticket (migrates) to India only between August end to September end! I had few months to wait but booked all my tickets well in advance, and hoped the European nightjar too would timely book its tickets for the annual trip to India! Talk about adding stress to oneself in the quest to be “fair”! I wanted the European nightjar to come well on time by the 20th-25th August as it always did, and so that I could click it within the 11 months as targeted to be “fair” compared to owls! 25th August I checked – no nightjar! Time was ticking, so was my heart! My family just could not understand how I could be stressed with something like this! But am sure the birders here will understand?! Finally on the 28th. Bharat ji informed me it has finally arrived, and I was ready to take my flight.

However, like in many movie endings, the climax scene started at airport! There were 5 changes to the flight I was to take and a cumulative change of 10 hours of postponement/prepones! It was like fate was having its last laugh again - 10 hours of climax scene stress for the 10 nightjars! I had to see the nightjar on the very first day and that too during daytime to manage my 11 months target - but it had a happy ending like most airport scenes and I reached my destination on time. Now came the final problem of finding the European nightjar deep in the jungles when it kept changing its position every day! It was like the climax scene again after an earlier climax scene (some recent movies have this format nowadays!). After a long drive and some desperate search for the hidden foreign guest for more than 2 hours in simmering heat and rocky terrains, we found it hidden between trees and bushes on top pf a hillock (more like Bharat ji s super sharp eyes found it!)…and now am extremely happy to share the news that I finished my 10/10 and 5-5 score and again in just about 11 months’ time as I had done for the owls! Target achieved; fairness and equality achieved; satisfaction and happiness achieved; justice achieved! With great help again from God and Guides! What more there is to life? - maybe sitting on a cot (right now as I write this) in the open jungles under the night stars after finding all the night jars! !