As daylight drains from the Surrey sky, details of the landscape in front of me - a swathe of heather, dense clumps of gorse, the odd sapling - gradually merge into dark, fuzzy shapes. On the horizon, small groups of Scots pines are etched against pink-rimmed clouds. Two robins and a cuckoo continue singing after sunset, and I hear the staccato bark of a fox. In the background, traffic speeds along the A3 dual carriageway that skirts the southeast edge of Thursley Common. I set off from the reserve car park an hour ago and followed the boardwalk through a reedy mire out into the heath. On the way I caught sight of an acrobatic hobby hunting the last of the day's dragonflies. Now I'm atop Shrike Hill, a nightjar hotspot that, during the day, offers a panoramic view of the common.
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