A Mid-year Review

Great White Egret (c) Darrell Wood

We are half-way through this year and I find with some embarrassment and surprise that I haven’t posted a blog since February. It sometimes feels as though time has accelerated and I have been left in its slipstream. It is not as if there has been nothing to talk about, the list of birds seen on the moor has exceeded that of previous years by mid-summer. It now stands at 152 species. 

Black-winged Stilt courtesy of Rob Cadd.

They include some major rarities such as Black-winged Stilt, Spotted Crake, Night Heron, Long-eared Owl and Montague’s Harrier. The Heron and the Stilt being firsts for the reserve (the previous Night Heron was regarded as an escape).

Night Heron courtesy of Jeremy Dexter.

My lack of posting has been much more to do with my difficulty in trying to find new things to say and to saying things in a fresh way. I have been writing this blog since 2011. In response to several enquiries and requests I will try to resume perhaps on a monthly basis.

Goldfinch (c) Bark

We are now entering what many birders regard as the quietest and least exciting time of the year, sometimes referred to as the summer doldrums.

Comma and Pied Hover-fly . (c) Bark

And to disprove this misconception there is still plenty to see, hear and experience on Otmoor.

Cuckoos (c) Bark

Last weekend there were still Cuckoos calling and flying across the reserve . There have at times been up to a maximum of six present including a hepatic female. The adults will all have left by the time this blog is published, but we can look and listen for the juvenile birds emerging from the  nests of their foster parents and being fed out in the bushes before they too make the difficult flight down to the Congo Basin in Central Africa.

Little and Large (c) Bark

All three species of Egret were on display last weekend with an elegant Great White at the first screen hunting in the shallows, a number of Little Egrets pottering about the lagoons and up to six Cattle Egrets accompanying the cows out on Greenaway’s and Closes.

Reed Warbler and food for chicks (c) Bark

The Warbler species across the moor are either busily collecting food to feed young or singing again to advertise for mates or to establish territory for second broods. Grasshopper Warblers were reeling from Morleys, the Pill area and out on Greenaways, last weekend.

Singing Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler (c) Bark

The ducks are starting to look very scruffy as they moult into their eclipse plumages. There have been a pair of Garganey on the lagoon in front of the first screen and there have also been lots of family groups of young ducks and ducklings with many broods of Shovellers to be seen, as well as a few broods of Pochard, Gadwall and Tufted Ducks.

Female Shoveller and four Trowels! (c) Bark

Female Bitterns are now making their characteristic feeding flights to and from the nest locations. It is thought that there are two different nests in the reedbed and another out in one of the smaller reedbeds on Greenaway’s.

An anxious Redshank (c) Bark

It is believed that there is still some nesting activity going on from the Marsh Harriers, but numbers are ambiguous after the regular adult male from the reedbed, who last year serviced two different nests that both raised youngsters, disappeared.

Crane pair from the Wetland Watch (c) Bark

Cranes are still present and are quite unpredictable, the loss of Maple Glory and her nest and eggs was a huge blow after the success of last year and it has been very difficult to keep track of how many Cranes have been on site and just which Cranes in particular, we have been seeing. Only one of our regular birds is still identifiable through his leg rings.

Grasshoppers are thriving on the grasslands (c) Bark

It is proving to be a good Quail year with a number of calling birds across the site. One very lucky Otmoor regular actually saw one of these elusive and secretive birds whilst out running across the Hundred Acre Field to the north of the reserve. We have also recorded Grey Partridges in The Closes, a species that was not seen at all last year.

Within the next few weeks, we will see the arrival of some of our early autumn passage migrants, such as Whinchats and Wheatears. There will be a number of Redstarts that will spend several weeks feeding up before undertaking the next stage of their migration. We might very well see some returning waders stopping over to feed before moving on. This time of the year is certainly quieter but never without interest.

A Skipper (c) Bark

Butterfly enthusiasts will be out in force looking for our special species like Brown Hairstreaks, that are regularly found along the Roman Road.

Hay Meadows are at their most flowery (c) Bark