Saturday Sunday and Monday 14th-16th March

Harbinger of Spring Sand Martin (c) JR

It was a tonic to get down to Otmoor this weekend and realise that, despite the trials and tribulations being experienced by the human population, the natural world is just getting on with life. Spring is in the air, mild weather and lengthening daylight has triggered the urge for countship and breeding. 

Courting Oystercatchers (c) Bark

The warmer weather and southerly winds are bringing in the first of the summer migrants. A Willow Warbler we heard singing at the end of the Roman Road on Monday morning was a very early arrival. Chiffchaffs are also moving up and down the hedgerows busy flitting, feeding, not pausing but giving their distinctive song as they go.

Chaffinch in full song (c) Bark

It is a very birdy time of year when many winter visitors have yet to leave and summer visitors are beginning to arrive.

Coots are building (c) Bark

Some bird numbers are now starting to decline. The thousands of Golden Plover from earlier in the winter are now reduced to hundreds. As they sit out on the fields facing into the wind a scope view reveals that many of them are moulting into their handsome summer plumage, with gold spangles appearing on their backs and black throats and bellies. Lapwings are now dispersed across the fields and are displaying and calling wildly.

Redshank (c) Bark

The sound of calling  Redshanks, Lapwings and Curlews marks a very particular time of year on Otmoor, before the soundscape becomes swamped by the songs and calls of newly arrived warblers. Our resident birds are already singing. Chaffinches and Reed Buntings most noticeable amongst them with an occasional Dunnock cranking out its cheery song from the top of a bramble or fence post.

Calling Reed Bunting (c) Bark

Reed Buntings were amongst the most numerous species we recorded when we did a hedgerow survey on the MOD land on Monday. As well as the birds setting up breeding territories across the moor, there are still a large number of them coming in to take advantage of the feeding programme alongside the hide. 

Dunnock and Goldfinch (c) Bark

There is also a flock of fifty or so Linnets, some Chaffinches, five or six Yellowhammers and a number of Goldfinches feeding on the fine seed mix that we are putting out for them. This food source fills the hungry gap for seedeaters when seeds in the wild have run out and before farmland weeds set this year’s seed.

Courting Gulls on Greenaway's

The Black-headed Gull colony that has developed over the last few years is once again getting started. Their courtship is very loud and what seems to us to be aggressive and harsh, the main focus of the colony seems to be in the eastern end of Big Otmoor with birds going over to the southern lagoon to bathe and preen. Last year we recorded several Mediterranean Gulls around and over the colony and we will be looking for them again this year.

Little Grebe (c) Bark

We spotted our first Sand Martin of the year from the first screen on Saturday morning and on Sunday I realised that a pair of Little Grebes were back on the southern Lagoon. A Bittern is booming regularly now from the middle of Greenaways and on Sunday morning I had a brief view of one flying low over the southern reedbed. 

Two of the Marsh Harriers interacting (c) Bark

There are certainly three Marsh Harriers over the reed-beds, and they appear to be a “ménage a trois” just as they were last year. One of the females is especially distinctive having at least one primary missing from the end of her right wing.

Hen Harrier (c) Bark

There is still at least one Hen Harrier making the rounds of the moor, my photograph suggests some paler feathers appearing on the upper wings and I wondered if this ringtail is in fact a juvenile male. Time will tell as the last similar one moulted over the summer into a splendid male by the autumn and then stayed around the moor all winter before heading off the following spring. (I have been advised that the bird is still in full juvenile plumage and the paler band is a normal juv feature and has just abraded a bit paler. Many thanks I.L.)

Wren at the second screen (c) JR

The Yearlist is currently standing at ninety-five species and will soon surge ahead as the trickle of new arrivals becomes a flood.

Squirrel eating Pussy Willow and Blackthorn soon to be out everywhere. (c) Bark

Out of February and into March

Hen Harrier (c) JR

I have only managed managed to get down to the moor twice in the last four weeks, largely due to storm Dennis trapping me overseas and then delivering awful conditions when I finally did get back. Followed by what has felt like a new storm every weekend since.

Reed Bunting (c) Paul Wyeth

Water levels have shot up to the highest that I can remember and once again there is extensive flooding across the whole of the moor. The birdlife is still spectacular with large numbers of wildfowl, Lapwings and Golden Plovers. 

Goldies (c) Bark

The Goldies in particular are very restless and liable to take to the air at the slightest threat. Once airborne the strong gusty winds scatter them across the sky like confetti at a March wedding. They are also very vocal calling constantly and then chattering when they do land, standing close together and facing into the wind. There are still several small groups of Dunlin loosely associating with them.

Muddy billed Curlew (c) Bark   (not a species!)

The single Curlew present since the turn of the year has been joined by some others and four birds were displaying over the northern edge of Greenaway’s this weekend. Four Oystercatchers are now on site, with two birds favouring the Flood Field and another pair on Big Otmoor.

Marsh Harrier (c) Bark

The Marsh Harriers are very active over the reedbed displaying and hunting. There are four different individuals and there is competition between the two pairs. Hen Harrier is now being seen much more reliably from the first screen and hunting across Greenaway’s. We know that there are two birds around, and we are not sure whether one individual is favouring hunting along the bunds and over the reedbed or whether we are seeing both birds in the same area but at different times. 

Hen Harrier (c) JR

They have occasionally been coming very close and demonstrating their extraordinary flying skills in the strong blustery winds. Two Peregrines have been hunting Teal across the reedbed and the Flood Field. They are clearly a pair as can be seen by the difference in size when they are perched up in the same tree and can be compared.

Stonechats   above(c) JR  below (c) Bark

There have been four very confiding Stonechats along the path to the second screen. Unusually the party is composed of three males and a female. We speculated that perhaps they were a pre-migration group, or the three males were courting the female. Normally Stonechats on the moor are seen in established pairs.

Yellowhammer and Great Spotted Woodpecker (c) Paul Wyeth

Spring is very much in the air with singing Chaffinches, Song Thrushes and Skylarks belting out their song whilst holding up in the windy skies. There are one or two early Chiffchaffs calling along the bridleway, but not yet singing all the time.

Kestrel (c) Paul Wyeth

Bitterns are now booming intermittently, and we have yet to establish whether there is just one male calling or two as there were last year. Cetti’s Warblers are establishing territories and producing much more complete and complex songs than their normal explosive burst of sound.

Leuchistic Pochard (c) Bark

There is an abundance of water and the hot dry times of last summer are a distant memory. The corner of the Carpark Field by the feeders is still flooded and Pheasants have taken to wading about under the feeders like ducks! 

Paddling Pheasant (c) JR

The reserve has attracted a new species of mammal. One of our trail cameras has picked up a Chinese Water Deer feeding on the bund. Extensive flooding along the Cherwell Valley and along the River Thame may have helped it to get here, we have been told that there have only been five records of this deer occurring in Oxfordshire since the year 2000. Provided it is not a lone wanderer, they could become a regular sight on Otmoor, as it is a very similar habitat to the ones that they favour in East Anglia.

Chinese Water Deer (c) RSPB trail camera

Hopefully spring will progress rapidly and bring a flood of new birds down to the moor, by the end of March we should be finding our first Wheatears and more Warblers, and the dark stormy days of winter should be behind us.

Spring Heron (c) Bark