Saturday and Sunday 22nd and 23rd July

Juvenile Bittern (c) Tezzer

There has been rain in the previous week and again overnight at the weekend. On both days, there was a moist heaviness in the air and first thing the vegetation was bowed down with drops of water. The foliage was refreshed after the prolonged dry spell and there were insects everywhere.

Young blackcap (c) JR

On both mornings, mixed flocks of tits and warblers were taking advantage of this abundant food supply. On Sunday morning many of the newly fledged birds were sitting out in the sun to dry and preen after the overnight downpours.

Sedge Warbler above (c) JR       Reed Warbler below (c) Old Caley

Young birds and passage waders are the key things to look for at the moment and the breeding successes of what were once scarce Oxfordshire birds is a tribute to the way the reserve has developed over the past twenty years.

Warblers (c) Old Caley

It is now clear that there are two separate broods of Marsh Harriers around the reedbed. Two birds have been perching up in the bushes on the north-eastern side bordering the flood Field. These two are being provisioned by a female that is moulting some primaries and is looking very scruffy. The other two youngsters can be seen perching up in the hedge along the back of Greenaways. All of these youngsters sit scanning the sky for the returning adults and await a food-pass from a parent bird.

Gulls seeing off a Marsh Harrier (c) Norman Smith

The number of Common Terns at the Tern raft has gone down as chicks have fledged and have moved off with the adults. There are still a few that are being fed on the raft and making occasional inexpert sallies over the water. The Black Headed Gull pair have raised one youngster to flying and are so vociferous in their defence of it that they chase ducks away from it if it gets too close to them. They take a very aggressive approach to the Little Egrets that just want to loaf about on the dead branches on the emerging muddy margin. They also challenge any raptors that stray too close.

More Bittern pics (c) Tezzer

There are now an indeterminate number of newly fledged Bitterns in the reedbed. Early last week two were seen landing clumsily in the reeds fringing the northern lagoon and possibly another was photographed from the high seat, after an uncomfortable three-hour session, by T.S. This bird was confirmed by Ian Lewington as being a pristine juvenile. As the season progresses we will expect to see them moving about within the reedbed and beyond in the channels and ring ditches across the reserve. If previous years are anything to go by the best chance of seeing them out in the open will be in the reed fringes of the northern lagoon.

There were waders to be seen this weekend.

Common Sand (top) Green Sand (middle two) and juv. Curlew (c) Tezzer

On Saturday there was a Green Sandpiper and a newly fledged Curlew on the Greenaways scrapes. Earlier in the week there had been three Little Ringed Plovers and a Common Sandpiper also haunting these receding pools. On Saturday morning a Greenshank flew over the reedbed looking as if it was about to land but thought better of it and moved on.

On Sunday we saw two Hobbies perched up on the high seat. We could scope them and one was clearly a juvenile, they were joined by another adult before flying off and starting to hunt over Big Otmoor. The transitional plumage male Hen Harrier is still being seen regularly hunting across Greenaways and the hedge along its northern edge. I saw it myself twice on Sunday, on first glance it looks as if there is a medium sized gull quartering the field but its flight pattern and agility are totally un-gull like.

Quail was heard again calling on Saturday morning from Big Otmoor, approximately half way along the bridleway towards Noke. Redstarts are now regular in Long Meadow and a young Spotted Flycatcher was seen on the wires in the Car Park Field and a further two birds were in Long meadow beyond the old brick stop-butt.

Redstarts,  above (c) Oz below (c) Old Caley

For a digest of what might be found on the moor in late summer/early autumn there is an article in the latest edition of Birdwatch magazine that says where to go and what one might see. Enjoy it.

Turtle Dove (c) JR

Otmoor Birding Hacked!!

j

Saturday and Sunday 15th and 16th July

Reed warbler (c) Bark

Saturday was unseasonably cool and damp, not wet enough to soak, but enough to fog optics and spectacles. Sunday saw a welcome return to warm and mostly sunny conditions.

Car Park Field Songthrush (c) Nick Truby

This weekend young, newly fledged or fledging youngsters took centre stage: Common Terns on the northern Lagoon, Marsh Harriers around the whole reedbed and parties of mixed tits and warblers in the hedgerows.

Common Terns (c) Nick Truby

Over the last few years the Tern raft out from the second screen has only attracted one or at most two pairs of Common Terns. In one year, they managed to raise just one chick to adulthood and last year both chicks were predated. This year has been very different, nine pairs have raised at least seven young, based just on the part of the raft we can see. I am sure that there are more than that out there. Their numbers mean that they can feed, provision the chicks and still have sufficient adults left over to drive off potential avian predators and the extra strand of wire on the electric fence appears to have kept any mammals at bay. The chicks are now starting to fly and when watching them it is quite amazing to see just how adept and manoeuvrable they are on so little flying experience, judging landing however is taking a bit more learning.

Lunch arriving (c) Nick Truby

The parent birds are having no trouble at all in finding sufficient food to keep them growing. Birds were arriving all the time with quite large fish mostly unidentifiable as to species, however last week one photographer posted a picture of a bird arriving at the nest site with a goldfish in its bill!

Sedgie (c) JR

The Marsh Harriers have fledged their young and their disposition has confirmed what we had thought, namely that there were two nests. Two females with a single male between the two. There are two juveniles being seen from the second screen and a further two that are in the hedge on the southern side of the big oak tree and on the northern edge of Greenaways. We witnessed several food passes over the weekend. The young birds sit in the trees and bushes, watching and waiting for the adults to return and then fly up to take the prey item from their talons or to chase it down when the adult releases it. When they are sitting up waiting it is possible to scope them very easily and you can admire their beautiful, uniform and pristine chocolate coloured plumage set off by a ginger cap and face.

Young Moorhen above (c) Derek Lane  and Young Water Rail below (c) JR

Two Common Cranes were seen on Sunday flying in from fields to the east, some very poor photographs that I took do not appear to show any colour rings on them, but that might just have been due to their distance and my blurry pictures. It could well be however that we still have four or even five individuals in the vicinity.

Long Meadow Redstart (c) Pete Roby

The Hen Harrier is still being seen from time to time and it is looking very scruffy as it starts to moult into plumage that confirms as we thought, that it is a young male. Over the coming weeks, assuming it remains, we should begin to see it looking much smarter.

Above Brown Hawker and prey (c) Derek Lane   below Teazel and Bee (c) Bark

The first returning Redstarts have been found in Long Meadow, with three individuals seen and heard on Sunday. They will be with us for a number of weeks now as they moult and fatten up for migration, a reminder that nature and the seasons never stand still and autumn is lurking around the corner.