An evening run on the Moreton Pit Light Railway…
There had been rumour that Bill Goodie, Reserve Manager, had heard a nightjar. Like the infamous guffinhawk, a frequent visitor to the MPLR, the nightjar is rarely seen but more conspicuous by its call. The low purring sound of the nightjar is, of course, hence its name, heard at night. The bird prefers open heathland and moors but apparently our very own bird expert had thought he had heard one so a night run was arranged with the local birdwatching society! For this ‘Wynne’ the railbus was in service and left Moreton Pit Station as it got dark.
As the nightjar tends to call while in flight it was not easy to say where it was going to be seen so it was decided the ‘Wynne’ was going to drop off the group of birdwatchers at each stop and wait for them. It was going to be a long night!
Wynne arriving at Lavender Hill Halt
The MPLR is eerily quiet at night and Moreton Mill seemed to have a ghostly glow about it……
The small enthusiastic party of birders alighted again at Bill Oddie Halt where they had to leave the safety of the paths to go into the reserve, passing by the entrance to the gravel pits.
Was this going to be a fruitless search? Were they ever going to find what they were looking for? The flood lighting from the Pit itself made a very scary scene from Bill Oddie Halt.
Soon it was time to return to Moreton Pit Station……where all was quiet.
Apart from Pete Periwinkle still on duty as always!
Soon, Wynne was safely back on shed.
So, did the MPLR’s night excursion find anything at all? Was it all for nothing? Or was it just a different view of the MPLR? Well, how about this photo, what do you think this was that was captured on camera?
