Late July

Young Whinchat (c) Bark

Last Sunday it took me nearly an hour to walk along the bridleway as far as the crossroads. Not because I was walking particularly slowly but because there was so much to look at. 

Newly fledged Reed Warblers (c) Bark

After the torrential rain of Saturday evening small birds were out and about foraging in the morning sunshine. Many of them gathering insects to take back to nestlings, others now feeding newly fledged chicks in the hedgerows. 

There were several families of Reed Warblers as well as Blackcaps, Common and Lesser Whitethroats and “willowchiffs”. 

Fine male Linnet on the way to the Pill (c) Bark

Some young birds were taking the opportunity to warm up, dry out in the sun and preen damp feathers. There were  also several mixed parties of young warblers and tits feeding independently of their parents.

Common Whitethroats (c) Bark

At the first screen we saw one of the adult Little Grebes still with a youngster in attendance. What had been a small fluffy chick riding on its parents back three weeks ago has grown now to be almost as large as its parent.

Juvenie Little Grebe (c) Bark

A Water Rail was seen out on the path with two very fluffy black chicks.

Railings ! and Water Rail Parent (c) Tezzer

At the second screen there are still a number of Common Tern chicks on the raft with just four parent birds in attendance. There is still one of the juvenile Marsh Harriers hanging around the reedbed while it waits for an adult to come in and provision it. It spends a lot of time sitting on top of the low willows looking around for the parent and calling. Twice, whist I was there, the female came in and dropped a prey item for it to swoop on.

Young Marsh Harrier (c) Bark

The other three young birds may already have moved off as they seem to be part of a separate brood and had fledged about two weeks earlier.

Juvenile Stonechats (c) Tezzer

Two juvenile Stonechats have been frequenting the path beside the hide that leads up to July’s Meadow. There had been a female Stonechat seen in the same area late in the spring. 

Safety conscious Robin (c) Bark

On Saturday in a more remote part of the moor we found a family party of Whinchats. 

Whinchats lower pic shows grasshopper prey (c) Bark

There were two adults and four juveniles. They were perching on low bushes and flying down to seize their insect prey and in almost every case that we could see they were picking up Grasshoppers. They seem to be especially prolific this year in the fields, perhaps the weather patterns this year have been particularly benign and encouraged their breeding. 

Redstart with Grasshopper (c) Bark

When I found five or six Redstarts in Long meadow on Sunday, they were employing the same feeding technique as the Whinchats. They were flying down from isolated bushes to grab insect prey and taking it back up to the perch to eat and they too were feeding almost exclusively on Grasshoppers.

Meadow Grasshoppers ? (c) Bark

A family party of five Kestrels were hunting together over Saunders Field. They were hovering low over the grasses and dropping down frequently to take their prey. I didn’t see them coming up with any small mammals in their talons and so I assume that they were taking invertebrates and it is not unreasonable to guess they were hunting grasshoppers.

Male Southern Migrant Hawker above and below Migrant Hawker (c) Geoff Wyatt

The Southern Migrant Hawker Dragonflies are still on the wing about a hundred metres beyond the north eastern edge of Big Otmoor a mature male was photographed this week and the first migrant Hawker. Brown Hairstreaks are now being seen in the Roman Road and Carpark Field and will attract many butterfly enthusiasts over the coming weeks.

Weasel (c) Tezzer