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| Stonechat (c) John Reynolds |
Quite a contrast between the two days on Saturday I was dodging the showers
and on Sunday I didn't need my rainwear at all. It certainly looks like autumn
now, the mornings are dark, there is colour in the hedgerows and migration is
under way......but it doesn't properly feel like autumn it is so mild and warm.
It really sounded like autumn however. This weekend you could hear two of the
sounds that most epitomise the season on Otmoor. One of them is the the wild
lonely wheep of Golden Plover as they fly restlessly overhead in their loose
chevrons. The other is the whistle of Wigeon as they call to each other, whether
in flight, feeding on the grass or loafing on the water. Both of these species
were very much in evidence this weekend.
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| Wigeon dropping in (c) Bark |
It was a good weekend for raptors. A lucky observer might have seen eight
species, but I was pleased to have seen seven. The most pleasing of them was a
sighting on Saturday morning of a male Merlin hunting over Greenaways. It was on
view for only a minute or so before disappearing over the hedge onto the MOD
fields. It was astonishingly quick and flying so low that at times it
disappeared into the ditches. After a gap of several weeks we have another Marsh
Harrier visiting. The same bird was seen on three consecutive days. Very dark
with plain wings and a very pale head, suggesting a juvenile.
Following a sighting of two Peregrines last week another single bird was
seen over the reedbed briefly on Sunday morning. A Sparrowhawk has been
attending the reedbed at dusk as in addition to the increasing number of
Starlings coming in to roost there are at least one hundred and fifty Pied
Wagtails roosting in the same area. On Saturday evening at one time there were
forty nine individual birds on the island in front of the first screen. The
Sparrowhawk has spent quite a lot of its hunting time pursuing them. Ravens were
seen overhead on both days.
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| Common Buzzard (c) Bark |
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| Bittern (c) John Reynolds |
Although I didn’t hear of a Bittern sighting this
weekend it was certainly seen on Friday and it or they are almost certainly
still here.
Ducks are beginning to moult out of eclipse and Teal are beginning to show
their smart colouring. A single male Pochard will now come very close to the
screen without being put off by people.
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| Pochard wash and brush up (c) Bark |
There are quite a number of Chiffchaffs in the hedges sometimes moving
with the roving tit flocks and other times feeding independently. Stonechats are
now beginning to stake their claims to particular territories and can usually be
located in regular spots. The Cetti’s Warbler continues to call from the area
around the second screen and perhaps another individual is in the vicinity of
the Hide.
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| Reed Bunting blending in with dead leaves (c) Bark |
A small party of a hundred or so Lapwings are present and as the
season turn to winter their numbers will increase. There are now larger numbers
of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks about, they are really only noticeable when they
fly or call, the rest of the time they are down in the grass or out amid the
freshly rotavated areas where they blend in perfectly.
Unusually there are still large numbers of dragonflies on the wing and on
Saturday a Clouded Yellow Butterfly was seen in Sally’s field on the western
edge of Big Otmoor.
Next weekend, if things continue much as they have, the moor will really
blaze with a last stunning flourish of autumn colour. The first flocks of
Fieldfares will arrive to join the Redwings that are already here and start to
feed on the plentiful crop of berries. Superb colour and lots of action, what
could be better?
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| The blaze of Autumn (c) Bark |
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