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The Nightjar Project: Sound Scrapes  (Sound 9)

Sound Scrapes is part of a project that takes evocative recordings of Ghanaian life and transposes them into related environments here in the New Forest. The Nightjar Project uses the bird’s migration to represent the fluid movement of people, histories, cultures and ideas between the UK and Ghana. 

The Bird That Can Fly Between Worlds

Press Play to listen 

Their habits have given the nightjar an eerie reputation, associated with lost souls and otherworldly forces. Imagining his own death, the Dorset poet Thomas Hardy used a nightjar to symbolise his soul passing,

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 If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid's soundless blink,

     The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight

Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,

     "To him this must have been a familiar sight."

 

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An Interesting Fact About Nightjars

The call of the European Nightjar is often a churring sound that is mechanical and eerie. The call can vary in pitch and volume and can last for several minutes.  They often move their head as they call, throwing their voice and making it difficult to locate exactly where they are. Different species of nightjar make a variety of sounds, including croaking, growling, grunting, and hissing. As if to make things even more eerie, the call is often combined with a percussive flapping of the wings. This is done by rapidly throwing them upwards and then sharply bringing them down with considerable force, creating a distinct "cracking" sound that is more akin to a whiplash effect. This behaviour is primarily used by male nightjars during courtship displays to attract mates. 

Click the button to learn more about this project.

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