Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd June

Swan and Cygnets (c) Paul Wyeth

A very warm weekend with a fairly strong breeze and  a little rain by late on Sunday. The moor has quietened down over the last couple of weeks as birds seek to feed hungry broods. There is not the same desperate drive to attract a mate or defend a territory. Despite that we had heard eight of our nine resident warbler species by the time we had got to the path to the first screen.

Whitethroat ,Garden Warbler and Blackcap (c) JR

Grasshopper Warbler eluded us , but that may well have been our increasing deafness rather than the birds not calling, they have to be very close now for me to pick up their reeling. We noticed several more singing Garden warblers this week than last which may well reflect the fact that they were the last migrant Warbler to arrive.

Great Crested grebe and chick (c) Noah Gins

At the first screen the pair of Great crested Grebes are carrying two stripy chicks around on their backs. They were reported to have three chicks on Friday but by Saturday and Sunday there were just two. Last year they failed to fledge any youngsters at all, such is the attrition rate in and around the reedbed.

female Bullfinch (c) JR

On Saturday morning a Spotted Flycatcher was seen in the oak trees along the bridleway. It was hunting from the dead branches, sadly we were unable to relocate it later but there are places on and around the moor where we will look for it in the coming weeks. I have also heard belatedly of a passage Osprey earlier in May and so the Otmoor Yearlist moves on by two more species, to one hundred and thirty-five.

Osprey (c) Terry Jones

Common Tern (c) Bark

The Common Terns on the Tern rafts have not wasted any time in getting going. There are already three chicks on the raft and when the staff went out to the raft, to replace the battery for the electric anti predator fence , they found there are fourteen nests. We watched a parent bird failing to get a fish that  was just too big for it, down a very small chick. The parent bird kept flying out with the fish and dipping it in the water, perhaps to try to lubricate it. Eventually the fish was fed to what must have been the birds’ mate.  

Newly fledged Black Headed Gull (c) Bark

A visitor pointed out a cream coloured bird to us on Sunday morning , standing on the edge of one of the scrapes. When we looked closely, we could see it was a very young newly fledged Black Headed Gull, clearly one of the first from the colony that has  taken up residence on big Otmoor.

Plum pockets (c) Bark

Some of the Blackthorn bushes have grown large distorted hollow sloes. We looked up what they might be, and they are described as “plum pockets”, similar to a gall and are caused by a parasitic wasp, they have certainly grown much faster than the sloes and I can’t recall ever seeing them before in such numbers.

Hairy Dragonfly, Broad bodied Chaser and Four spot chaser (c) Bark

The warm weather has brought on the emergence of adult dragonflies and more butterflies. There are now pristine Four-spotted Chasers, Broad bodied Chasers and Hairy Dragonflies, to be seen in the reeds and along the hedgerows. In addition to the various Damselflies in the vegetation beside the reedbed we are now noticing a few Banded Demoiselles.

Female Banded Demoiselle ? (c) Bark

Last week I put up a  picture of a strange insect that I had spotted in the corner of a photograph of a Dandelion clock. It has been identified as a longhorn micro moth called Nemophora degeerella (thanks to Carolyn Tovell )

Longhorn moth (c) Carolyn Tovell

This weeks puzzle is a very beautiful iridescent beetle seen eating pollen in a Buttercup flower. Its rear legs look as if it has been on a body building course or like a bumble bee that has collected lots of pollen.

Mystery Beetle (c) Bark

The Dog roses are now out in force splattering the hedgerows with every shade from white through to deep pink, pannicles of elder flowers are scenting the air with their distinctive smell and along the path to the first screen is a Privet in full flower giving off its strong perfume.

Cuckoo (c) JR

Dog Rose