A plumber and heating engineer with a passion for photography sent Twitter into a frenzy when he posted images of a rare bird.

Lewis Newman often takes pictures of wildlife, but on October 19 he managed to capture something that sent bird lovers wild, when he captured a Common Nighthawk on camera over Bushy Park.

Mr Newman explained: “I decided to do my morning sunrise shoot and was out to try and locate a Little Owl which I saw the previous week.

“I was at the Diana fountain in Bushy Park, when I noticed something very high in the sky circling appearing from the Thames side.

“Being so used to the familiar sightings I knew that when I first spotted this figure in the sky it was something special the way it was flying, and its presence was something I had not seen before.”

After spending ten minutes taking pictures of the bird, Mr Lewis then decided to share the images onto his Twitter account of the bird, which is thought to have flown to the UK from Ireland.

The Common Nighthawk typically resides in California and was first recorded in 1778.

They can be described as birds that are the last to go home because they tend to migrate during August and September before returning to their nests in the Spring.

Not only that but according to online bird watching website – Birdguides.com, the Common Nighthawk has not been seen in the UK since the 1980’s.

Mr Newman added: “I’m not a keen birder myself, I’m more into wildlife so I spend a lot of time in Bushy Park.

“When I put the images onto Twitter - I was shocked at everyone’s reactions and it took a while to process.

“I didn’t realise it was big deal and that the bird came all the way from Ireland.

“I knew it was strange because I had never seen anything like it had white markings on it, so I just threw onto my social media without any expectations.

“I will definitely keep my eyes in the sky from now on.”