First Two Weeks of March

Glossy Ibis (c) Bark

There is an old saying that: “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”. We can only hope that this adage will hold true this year. We have experienced a very stormy start to the month and a softer, warmer and more lamb like second half would be most welcome.

Little Grebes (c) Tom N-L

Water levels across the moor have gone down considerably and are currently at their optimum levels for the time of year and the start of the breeding season. It has become slightly warmer again after another cold snap at the start of the month, but nights can still be frosty.

There are still some Redwings feeding on the paths. (c) Bark

The seasonal comings and goings have continued and gained pace, despite the vagaries of the weather. Redshank numbers have gone up dramatically and there are pairs displaying and calling across all of the main fields.

Heron Nest building (c) Bark

The resident Lapwings too are getting on with the business of reproduction, there are still overwintering Lapwing flocks, but their numbers are gradually reducing.

Goldies (c) Bark

The number of Golden Plovers on site has also shrunk considerably, despite this there are still almost a thousand, mostly hunkered down on the Flood Field or Big Otmoor and only really showing themselves when flushed by one or other of the raptors frequenting the moor.

Greenaway's Curlew (c) Bark

Curlews are pairing up and beginning to display and adopt territories across the whole moor.

The Closes, Big Otmoor and The Flood Field are proving to be very attractive to passage waders. There have been up to twenty-seven Black-tailed Godwits present many of them moulting into their smart brick red breeding plumage.

Blue Tit gathering reed mace ? (c) Tom N-L

The Lapwing and Golden Plover flocks often include a sprinkling of Dunlin flying amongst them when they flush in response to a real or an imagined threat. Careful scoping will often reveal them, feeding amongst the larger birds busily picking up scraps from amongst the tussocks or along the water’s edge. There have also been up to fourteen Ruff feeding out on The Closes and Big Otmoor.

Courting Gadwall Tom N-L

Pintail Pair Big Otmoor (c) Tom N-L

Many of the ducks are pairing up and those yet to acquire mates are pursuing females in gangs. The Pochard Drakes have developed deep rusty red heads in which their bright vermillion eyes glow.

Female Pochard (c) JR

Pairs that have adopted a nest site are very reluctant to leave it and there was such a pair in the ditch alongside the bridleway last weekend. The female almost melted away into the dead reeds lining the ditch, while the male paddled off, reluctant to take wing.

and again (c) Bark

A Water Pipit is still present and was seen on the weekend before last from the second screen. It was feeding in amongst the reed stubble. It is probably the same individual that was photographed in the late autumn beside the stone track and seen in a similar area after the New Year.

Water Pipit courtesy of Dave Lowe

Chiffy in the Roman Road (c) Bark

In the hedgerow survey that we started last week it was notable just how many Chiffchaffs we picked up, one or two of them are now singing actively. We were also finding and hearing Cetti’s in places that we have not heard them before and are increasing our estimates of just how many we now have on Otmoor.

B.H.G. at the first screen (c) Bark

The Black -headed Gulls are starting to pair up and there were up to fifteen individuals on and over the lagoon in front of the first screen. They were characteristically very noisy as they displayed and paired up.

Dramatic Marsh Harrier food pass over the reedbed (c) Dan and Tricia Miller

If they behave as they did in the last couple of years their numbers will increase rapidly over the next few weeks. They will move onto Big Otmoor to nest where they can be safe from mammalian predators and their numbers will help to deter avian predation.

Glossy over (c) Tezzer

We have had three exciting new additions to the year-list, which now stands at one hundred and ten species. A Little Gull was seen at the second screen last weekend, it is the first one on the moor since 2018. A Little Owl has been heard calling and we failed to record this species at all last year.

Glossy Ibis (c) Bark

Glossy Ibis by Badger.

Finally, a Glossy Ibis was seen last Friday in flight and it would appear to have taken up temporary residence in one of the remoter corners of the reserve, although it can be seen from the public right of way on the northern side of the moor. It might well be the same individual that was photographed towards the end of last year. There have been enough flooded fields around the moor for it feed on over the last couple of months!

Shouting Wren (c) JR

Perhaps by next weekend we will have recorded our first Wheatears and Sand Martins of the year.

Red Kite behind the first screen (c) Bark

Last two weeks of February

 

Stonechat (c) Bark

The cold of the start of the month has been replaced with much warmer sunnier weather and all over the moor there are signs of spring.

Singing Wren (c) Bark

Birds are singing, winter visitors are leaving, breeding waders are returning, bumble bees are on the wing and the first white blackthorn flowers are opening.

Snowdrops in the carpark (c) Tom N-L

Ring Necked Duck above with "Luke" (c) Bark and below (c) Nick Truby

It has been an exciting couple of weeks with a fine drake Ring-necked Duck appearing amongst the Tufties at the first screen last Sunday. In addition, the first Curlew, Redshanks and Oystercatchers have arrived at about the same time.

Redshank and Oystercatcher (c) Bark

Already the soundscape on the moor has changed. Not just the distinctive and evocative Curlews calling and circling over the Flood and Greenaway’s but also  Redshanks yodelling over Big Otmoor, where there were at least six this weekend, with many more to follow in the coming weeks. The resident Lapwings are already courting, both on the ground performing their odd “banana” display, where they lay their breast on the ground and push their behind up showing the orange under-tail coverts and the males calling whilst making their aerobatic tumbling territorial display flights.

Chiffy (c) Bark

In the carpark field on Sunday there were two Chiffchaffs singing as well as a Song Thrush, while along the bridleway several Chaffinches were delivering their songs.

Songthrush (c) Tom N-L

Cetti’s’ warblers are at their most vociferous at this time of year and with very little foliage on the bushes they are also at their most visible. They are doing exceptionally well down on Otmoor. They were first recorded in 2002 and apart from an absence for the whole of 2013 and over half of 2014, have been ever present.

Cetti's (c) Nick Truby

The prolonged severe cold at the end of 2012 and into the start of 2013 wiped out the Otmoor population completely. It is an example of how vulnerable sedentary insectivorous birds can be to prolonged cold snaps. Our population has survived the recent cold weather very well and seventeen calling individuals were heard across the moor this Sunday.

Singing in the mist (c) Bark

Wrens have also survived the cold and are staking claim to territories around the reedbed and along the hedgerows. Treecreepers, Nuthatches and Coal Tits have been recorded along the woodland edge on the southern side of Ashgrave.

Singing Dunnock (c) Bark

There has been a return of Stonechats to the moor after their temporary absence through the cold wet spell. There was a party of six together on the edge of Greenaways last weekend.

Stonechats (c) Bark

There have been up to five different Marsh Harriers active over and around the reedbed. Last weekend they were displaying and calling high overhead before undertaking tumbling dives, there was also a food-pass seen, which is described in the B.W.P. as courtship feeding of the female by the male.

Marsh Harrier from the first screen (c) Nick Truby

There is an active pair of Peregrines around the moor at present the male is much smaller and much paler than his mate who is a very dark and well-marked individual. They currently favour perching in the skeletal oak tree on the far side of the second field on the left as one walks towards the second screen.

Peregrine tree above (c) Tom N-L below (c) Nick Truby

There are still good numbers of Golden Plover and winter visiting Lapwings out on the Flood Field. Their presence only really noticeable when a raptor such as a Peregrine goes over.

Goldies (c) Tom N-L

On Sunday when they all flushed there were fourteen Ruff and at least forty Dunlin flying with them. The water levels across the moor augur well for spring wader passage over the next couple  of months.

Five Cranes on Greenaway's (c) Tricia Miller

First two weeks of February

Confiding Water Rail (c) Bark

From minus seven last weekend to an expected plus sixteen next weekend, we are really experiencing some extremes and so is the wildlife out there surviving in it. We have also experienced snow, floods and ice, all within a couple of weeks.

The ice and cold of last week have finally driven the huge flocks of Lapwings and Golden Plovers to move elsewhere. There were still some Goldies present on Monday when we did the Webs. Count but this time they were numbered in tens rather than in thousands.

A few of the Goldies after the cold . One showing the start of moult (c) Bark

They may yet return to complete their moult into spring plumage before heading off north once more. The Lapwings that have remained are much more spread out across the reserve and may well be our resident breeders looking for dry ground to nest on!

Some of the throng that were with us before the freeze. (c) Bark

Water levels across the moor are just beginning to subside. The reserve has been more inundated than I can remember in the last twenty years. The path to the first screen was flooded almost to knee high and tall Wellingtons were essential to get through without wet feet.

To quote Billy Connelly " If it wasne for your wellies where would ye be" (c) JR

There has been a very confiding Water Rail feeding along the edge of this path from time to time giving its piglet squeal. They are much easier to see out in the open in frozen conditions.

Above in the mist (c) Paul Tomas Below in the light (c) Bark

Raptors have been very much in evidence as the cold has set in. Last weekend there were four different Marsh Harriers hunting over the reedbeds and adjacent fields.

Marsh Harrier spooking the ducks . (c) Bark

At one time there were ten Red Kites over the reedbed, the flood and the northern edge of Greenaways. The Kites have been looking for easy prey amongst the casualties of the much reduced Starling roost and have also been scavenging from the carcasses of geese that have fallen prey to the cold, starvation or just old age.

Kites at a carcass (c) Tom N-L

We spotted a Sparrowhawk sitting in one of the hawthorns along the bridleway overlooking Greenaways. It flew down fast and low; it flushed several Meadow Pipits that had been feeding unobtrusively in the grass and with an aerobatic change of direction flipped upwards and grabbed one. Its speed and manoeuvrability were superb and spectacular.

The Sprawk perched (c) JR and going in to the attack (c) Bark

The intense cold did not persist long enough to completely freeze over all the water bodies, so there were disconsolate looking parties of ducks and coots around and on the open areas of water. At one time during the cold snap there were over four hundred Coots on the reserve, the icy conditions meant that they suspended their mutual hostilities for the duration of the cold.

Ice Coot (c) Bark

When the ice melted, they resumed their normal belligerence with each other which is more evident in the spring when they are pairing up and acquiring territory.

Bickering Coots (c) Oz

There have been significant numbers of Pintail on the moor this winter and on some occasions well in excess of three hundred have been seen.

On Sunday there  were five birds out on the lagoon in front of the first screen allowing much better view than those out on Big Otmoor or The Flood. There are also a few Pochard there as well and I have had reports that “Luke” our leuchistic drake Pochard is still about.

Snipe (c) Bark

I was very relieved on Monday after carrying out a Webs. Survey around The Closes , Greenaway’s and the reedbed to realise that with the addition of yet another individual in the Carpark Field, that we had heard over ten Cetti’s calling from all around those fields. We have in the past lost all of them when we have had cold weather events and it has taken several years for the population to re-establish itself.

Skating on thin ice (c) Bark

If two weekends ago was a time for wellies, this last weekend was one for walking carefully on ice. We skated rather than walked out to the screens and the ice was almost ,but not quite thick enough!

Not quite thick enough (c) JR

With warm weather predicted for the next week we can look forward to more normal water levels and to the return of our breeding Redshanks and Curlew. There is not too much more winter to endure.

Robin (cousins) on ice. (c) Bark