|
Busy feeding young.(c) JR |
To quote Sir Van Morrison (topical !) this weekend on both mornings Otmoor
was “...all misty wet with rain..”. But despite the continuous drizzle on
Saturday and first thing on Sunday there was lots of activity on the moor. Birds
could be seen everywhere foraging for insects to feed their broods. Already
there were newly fledged tits, wrens and warblers working along the hedgerows
some still being fed by the parent birds. A hare bounded through the fields to
the left of the footpath to the second screen, leaping above the wet grass to
see which way it was going. It must have been completely soaked through.
|
(c) Bark |
Tiny
drops of water like strings of pearls outlined every spiders web, blossom and
seed head. Snipe were still actively drumming overhead while their mates
“chipped” from among the tussocks and sedges where they nest. For the first time
they were displaying over Ashgrave which is not usually an area that they
favour.
|
Drummer (c) JR |
Two Turtle Doves continued to purr, one from the pumphouse area and the
other from the edge of the MOD land and Long Meadow. As usual they attracted a
lot of attention and admiration from visiting birders, further accentuating just
how uncommon they have become in the UK.
|
Common Terns failing to mate (c) JR |
There is evidence of success on the tern raft. two small fluffy chicks
could be seen tottering around on the shingle surface. Elsewhere another pair of
terns are also trying to breed but as yet we cannot work out where they might
nest. They had an unsuccessful attempt at mating in front of the first screen
which resulted in the male having a rather humiliating fall into the water.
Undeterred he was later pursuing the female around in the air calling loudly and
carrying a small fish in his bill.
Four Ravens flew over Greenaways probably a family party as two seemed
slightly smaller than the others. It has now become as unusual not to see them
as it used to be to see them at all. There now appears to be just one Marsh
Harrier present, the one whose wing feathers are moulting.
|
Marsh Harrier over Greenaways (c) JR |
It is no longer
confined to the reedbed area and hunts a lot over Greenaways. A pale Bittern has
been seen over the northern reedbed several times in the last few weeks and it
may well be one of the individuals that wintered here one of those was very
pale.
|
Grass Snakes (c) Bark |
The weather improved by mid morning on Sunday and the watery sunshine
encouraged the Grass Snakes out of cover to bask on and under the pollarded
willows beside the track in the carpark field. On one stump alone at least five
were showing several of them quite large
|
Hairy Dragonfly (c) Bark |
. A very fresh looking Hairy Dragonfly
landed just beside us and we wondered if the emergence of dragonflies had been
delayed by the cool spring and early summer. Over the next few weeks we will be
looking very closely at chaser dragonflies to see if we can find another of the
Scarce Chasers that we found last year. There is always something to look for on
Otmoor.
|
Sedgie, Whitethroat and Wren (c) JR |
No comments:
Post a Comment