13th July - 22nd July Midsummer weather

Juvenile Willow warbler (c) JR

Two exceptionally hot weekends with just a short heavy shower of rain on Friday the 19^th to relieve the heat stress on the moor. By late morning the reserve has been very quiet as everything slows down to manage the hottest part of the day. Despite the weather being the same from day to day there are changes to be detected, that emphasise the point that nature seldom stays still.

Adult Marsh Harrier (c) Bark

Out at the reedbed there were about five newly arrived Teal and many other wildfowl that are now gathering together and starting to moult. Over the reedbed we counted four newly fledged Marsh Harriers. They are distinctive in their uniform chocolate coloured plumage, their custard coloured heads and the lack of ability to fly or land well when compared with the adults. Their landings at present are little more than barely controlled crashes, as they have yet to figure out what will take their weight and where exactly their feet are. The three adults that we have identified were hunting across the whole moor and sometimes returning with prey.

Distant view of the G.C.G.s with two chicks (c) Bark

The pair of Great Crested Grebes on the southern lagoon have two chicks that can be seen riding on the backs of one or other of the adults. There are very many juvenile Coots everywhere.

Common Tern (c) Bark

On the northern lagoon there are now just one pair of Common Terns remaining with one well grown youngster. They go from fluffy little chicks to flying youngsters in a very short time, perhaps not surprising given their exceptionally nutritious diet and the frequency with which the parents service them. (BWP says fledging 22 - 28 days from hatching)

Bittern over the reedbed (c)  JR

Bitterns are still being seen over the reedbed but their feeding flights have become less frequent as the young birds soon spread away from the nest site and start to fend for themselves.

Distant record shot of Gropper (c) Bark

Unusually this last weekend there was a reeling Grasshopper Warbler calling from a low tussock of grass about forty metres out on Greenaways. It was there both days and showing clearly in the open. It clearly had not read the i.d. guide that says that they are skulking birds that sing from within deep cover!

Juvenile Stonechat from 9th July (c) Luke O'Byrne

I have been sent a photograph of a very young juvenile Stonechat that was taken on the 9^th July at the cattle pens. We did think that they might have bred out at the Pill last year and have occasionally thought that we had seen adult birds out in the north eastern part of Greenaways. Next year we will try to monitor them more closely if they are still here, as it will be a new breeding bird for the reserve if we can confirm it.

Mistle Thrush (c) Bark and phonescoped Redstart (c) Steve Roby

Long Meadow is beginning to repay a visit. Last weekend I found a family party of six young Mistle Thrushes feeding under the bushes and out in the freshly mown grass close to the Spinney. This is not a common species on and around the moor. This weekend S.R. found the first pair of Redstarts of the autumn passage. I went to look and we were rewarded by a brief sighting of a female flying out from the cover of a large bush to snatch some prey, it was probably a grasshopper as you walk through the grass they ping off in every direction.

Young Reed Warbler (c) Bark

It was also good to play spot the Warbler, as Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Lesser Whitethroats were all flitting around and in the bushes.

Brown Hairstreak (c) Bark

We found our first Brown Hairstreak of the season in the carpark field on Sunday morning. It was on the ground and clearly very recently emerged, its colours were so bright, fresh and clean. There were also several of them on show high up in the “master ash” along the Roman Road, along with some Purple Hairstreaks.

Froglet ideal for Cranes and Little Egrets

The Common Cranes are still being seen as they move between feeding areas but with the abundance of grasshoppers and small froglets they do not have to go far to find food.

Hot Hare (c) JR and Teasel (c) Bark

Saturday and Sunday 8th and 9th July

Bullfinch at the first screen (c) Bark

The heat and the sunshine meant that it was difficult to stay out of the shade after mid morning and bird activity decreased as the day got hotter. The fields are sere and brown except for the fringing of reed along the ditches and the smaller reedbeds scattered across Greenaways. It is the time of year often referred to as the birding doldrums but there was still lots to see if one was patient.

Reed warbler and juvenile Blue Tit (c) Bark

Larger mixed feeding parties are moving along the hedgerows. Juvenile Blue and Great tits swing acrobatically from the panicles of Hogweed, Cow Parsley and Hemlock as they pick tiny insects out from between the bracts of the flowers.

Juvenile Willow/Chiff (c) Luke O'Byrne

It is possible to find very young newly fledged warblers feeding busily among the reeds or in the hedges and to spot adult birds still gathering insect prey for second broods.

Sedgie with food for chicks (c) Luke O'Byrne

On both Saturday and Sunday, we noticed several pairs of Bullfinches around the first screen and by the kissing gate. They too are behaving in such a way as to suggest they are setting out to raise further broods.

The adult Cuckoos have now finally departed, and we are now listening out for the distinctive hissing begging calls that the young birds make to persuade their surrogate parents to feed them.

young Song Thrush (c) Bark

We are sure that we saw two newly fledged Marsh Harriers up over the reedbed on both days this weekend. There may very well be more as we may not have seen the same two each time as at this stage all juveniles look identical. One of the adult Marsh Harriers is very distinctive as it is very much paler with whiter shoulders and wing coverts than any of the others.

Marsh Harrier (c) Bark

Bitterns are still making regular, if less frequent feeding flights, with one bird appearing to favour the ring-ditch on the eastern side of Greenaways and the other seems to come in from The Closes probably utilising the deep ditch and wide reed fringe along its northern edge.

Banded and Beautiful Demoiselles (c) Stoneshank

We have very large numbers of the bigger species of dragonflies out and about across the moor, but as yet we have not noticed many Hobbies taking advantage of this abundance. Perhaps as the summer progresses we will have newly fledged birds and post breeding adults coming through and fattening up before migration. There were several of their other main sources of prey present on Sunday morning, with a small party of very young Swallows on the wires in the Carpark field.

Car-park Field Swallows (c) Bark

During the week a fine adult Purple Emperor butterfly was seen in the car park field. This is only the third record of our largest native butterfly being found on the reserve. Perhaps they are extending their range out from their stronghold in nearby Bernwood, we certainly have the mature oak trees and the grey and goat willows that they like all along the Roman Road.

Moorhen with very pale youngsters (c) Bark

As water levels draw down we can hope to attract returning waders and once the tractor work gets under way out in the fields we should be seeing Yellow Wagtails feeding around the feet of the cattle and be able to see our pair of Cranes stalking through the grass on the northern edge of Greenaways.

Last week in June and start of July

Bittern (c) Tezzer

I missed the last weekend of June on Otmoor as I spent a few days in south west Wales, including a couple of nights on Skomer. There I was able to experience a spectacle that many of my friends have described, namely sitting at “the Wick” and watching hundreds of Puffins coming in from the sea, wings whirring and going like small guided missiles their bills full of sandeels. It was even better that we were on the island on Monday when no day visitors come and so had the island and “the Wick” effectively to ourselves.

Puffins (c) Bark

I had not realised just how habituated and unafraid the birds are, nor how they have to run the gauntlet of piratical Herring Gulls waiting to mug them and take their catch. It was great to be in Pembrokeshire and have the chance to reacquaint myself with many of the coastal species that are never or seldom seen in Oxfordshire.

An elegant Teasel and a wild Cornflower  above (c) Bark   below (c) Stoneshank

Meanwhile back on the moor things have slowed down as is the way in mid-summer. I was surprised at how much the vegetation has changed in just a fortnight. The grasses have set seed and already the fields are more pale and ochre coloured than green. All apart from the phragmites reeds that continue to push up higher and are bright emerald in colour.

Young Reed Warbler (c) Bark

There has been news however and sadly it concerns our pair of Common Cranes. For the fourth consecutive year they have failed to fledge a chick or chicks. We had very high hopes this year and we know that they managed to keep the chick safe and growing for over six weeks from hatching. For the first time this year we managed to catch sight of the chick and by the time it perished we know it would have been nearly two feet tall. We can only assume that it was predated and probably at that stage the only likely predator would have been a fox. The birds arrived in the spring within a couple of days of when they arrived last year.  They demonstrated all the same behaviours of the previous three seasons so that we were able to calculate hatching dates and then follow their progress with the chick from the nest site and out into the surrounding areas. They are becoming much more practiced at chick rearing and every year they have managed to keep the chick or chicks alive for longer and longer. This year we calculate that the chick was just three or four weeks from flying, apart from the presence of predators the habitat is clearly right for them, and we can only hope that as they get more mature and experienced they will be successful eventually.

Marsh Harrier with prey (c) Tezzer

Our resident Marsh Harriers are having another successful year and we are confident that there are two pairs and on Sunday I saw a brief first flight from a juvenile bird. The juveniles are uniformly chocolate brown with a pale straw-coloured head. They are also not the most accomplished flyers early on. However, their confidence and competence will grow rapidly, as parent birds come in with prey items, call them up into the air and then drop the prey so that they start to catch it in mid-air.

Bittern on a feeding flight (c) Tezzer

Bitterns too are making feeding flights and can frequently be seen from the first screen heading across the reedbed. Young Bitterns disperse fairly quickly from the nest and then are found out in the reeds around the nest-site by the mother birds and fed. The male Bitterns play no part in raising the young.

Young Pochards (c) Old Caley

There were at least six young Pochard on the northern and southern reedbeds on Sunday and there are good numbers of juvenile Shovellers as well as Tufted Ducklings and Mallards.

There have been a few returning waders seen including a party of Black-tailed Godwits and the first Common Sandpiper reported on Otmoor this year.

Brown Hawker and Purple Hairstreak (c) Bark

During this quieter time the fine weather has proved to be good for butterflies and other insects. Last week White-letter Hairstreaks were found among the suckering elms along the footpath along the northern perimeter of the reserve just past Oddington. They have been recorded there before but not for some years. We found ten or more Purple Hairstreaks in the roman Road area on Saturday and it along there that the Brown Hairstreaks should be appearing in the next couple of weeks.

Juvenile Long Tailed Tit (c) Bark

Here are already mixed flocks of juvenile tits foraging together in the hedgerows and also groups of young warblers. I have not yet had any reports of juvenile Cuckoos being spotted but I am sure it will not be long. We were surprised to have two calling adults still on the moor on Saturday and Sunday this week.

Dust bathing Pheasant and Common Lizard (c) Bark