From time to time birders – like anyone passionate about a hobby or interest – experience great defining moments. These special events could include:

• The moment when one sees an elusive species for the very first time.
• When one sees a favourite bird in all its colourful splendour, lit by the bright sunlight and perched picture perfect in full view.
• When a photograph of a bird turns out just right.
• When one has waited or searched patiently for a particular species, only to find it flitting around the car you left hours before your search began. (That happened to me with the Rufous Fantail once.)
• When one has a good view of a rare or hard to find species (like the Lyrebird following me down the track on Royal National Park near Sydney – it may be common to birders in that region but they are only found in the zoo here in South Australia).

My list could go on. One species I’d only had fleeting views of – and then only in the headlights of the car at speed at night – is the Spotted Nightjar. A few weeks ago I found (with some help from a friend) a single Spotted Nightjar roosting on the ground at the Pangarinda Arboretum (Click here for the full story).

Spotted Nightjar