gryllosblog   Gryllo's (aka Ian Lewis') blog. All things to do with travel, wildlife especially birds, history, architecture and anything else that interests me.

Firstly for anyone who doesn’t know – why the nickname Gryllo?

Well back in 1981 we were commencing a research project on the European Nightjar involving ringing and radio tracking the birds.

Nightjar at sea off Oman - photo Mike Watson

I was given the job of recording some tape loops of the ‘churring’ song to attract the birds to the nets.

The recordings I used were anounced by their scientific names and after Caprimulgus europeaus there was a short recording of the Mole Cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa which sounds quite like a Nightjar.

Mole Cricket - Khazakstan

 I managed to overrun one recording so that every minute as the tape looped round the word ‘gryllo’ was heard, my fellow ringers were highly amused and the name stuck!