The weather has continued to be very cold at night
with frequent frosts and days have been cloudless and sunny. There has been no
significant rain so far this month and the scrapesand ditches across the reserve are drying out
rapidly.
One of the Spotted Redshanks (c) Bark
The exposed mud has proved to be very attractive to passage waders and
we have hosted up to six Bar-tailed Godwits and currently there are two Spotted
Redshanks, one on Closes and another on Big Otmoor.
Curlew over the bridleway (c) Bark
Small parties of Whimbrel
have come and gone making “ bed and breakfast” stopovers. A Grey Plover has
also been noted and over the last few days several Greenshanks have come
through.
Garganey (c) JR
Garganey pair courtesy of Badger
Just as last summer there is a pair of Garganey out on the pools that
sometimes fly over to the scrapes nearer to the bridleway where the male has
been seen displaying, with neck stretching and head bobbing.
Golden Plovers (c) Tezzer
There are still
just a few Golden Plovers still around the moor and if one is lucky enough to
see them in the sun their golden name is totally justified.
Grasshopper Warbler (c) JR
All the regular Warbler species have arrived now with Garden
Warbler being heard and seen in the middle of last week and Lesser Whitethroat
arriving on Saturday.
Lesser Whitethroat (c) Bark
Grasshopper Warblers are often less shy and retiring when
they first arrive and will often reel away in the open. They are also easier to
see as the trees and bushes are not yet in full leaf. We were very fortunate to
encounter two of these less retiring individuals, they offered point blank
photo opportunities.
Gropper (c) Bark
People sometimes disparage small brown warblers as being
boring but the subtle plumage detail of a Grasshopper Warbler when seen well,
in good light, is a delight. There is a male Sedge Warbler that has taken up territory
along the bridleway and is singing his manic song at full pelt out in the open
and his plumage too is anything but brown and boring!
Sedge Warbler (c) JR
Willow Warblers are still singing, but Chiffchaffs,
that arrived so much earlier are paired up and already nest building, we are
hearing more contact calls from them rather than the full-on monotonous song.
Singing Willow Warbler
Reed Warblers are calling from the reed fringed ditches but are difficult to
see as they are currently staying out of the wind and singing from deeper in
the reeds. Blackcaps can be heard almost everywhere often singing from the tops
of the bushes whilst the similar but subtly different song of the Garden
Warbler comes from lower down and deeper into the vegetation.
Nest building Chiffchaffs (c) Bark
All of this chorus of birdsong is punctuated from time
to time by one of the three booming Bitterns present on the reserve, sounding
off a salvo of three or four foghorn-like booms. While walking right around the
moor last weekend we met a couple who live in Oddington. They commented that
they had heard the reedbed Bittern booming at two in the morning when the moon
was bright!
Blackcap (c) Bark
Hobbies have arrived but not yet in the larger numbers
that we usually attract when they are freshly arrived and before they disperse
to breed. The peak time for Hobby is usually in the first ten days or so of
May. Three cuckoos have been heard simultaneously, but will not be seen very often
until the Reed Warblers start nesting.
Ring Ouzel (c) Pete Roby
A Ring Ouzel was seen and photographed
at the end of the Roman Road and a White Stork was recorded over Big Otmoor. Two
Great White Egrets were seen on Saturday and Sunday, perhaps two of the birds that
have been seen frequently at Blenheim Palace.
Swift from the first screen (c) Bark
On Sunday we recorded our first
Swifts of the year over the first screen and southern lagoon.
Bullfinch (c) Bark
Mistle Thrush collecting worms at Noke (c) Bark
The year-list is an impressive one hundred and
forty-six species with a number of regular birds still to come, unprecedented
at this point in the year. The Glossy Ibis has reappeared after being seen with
two other birds and we wonder what will come next.
Spring
migration is well and truly underway despite the unseasonably cold last few
weeks, that have produced frosty nights and even one morning of snow. One
wonders what the newly arrived insectivorous birds are finding to eat.
Chiffy (c) Bark
Grasshopper
Warblers were heard reeling on Tuesday morning for the first time this year.
They were in the car-park Field and also out on Greenaways. Only Lesser
Whitethroat and Garden Warbler have still to arrive, of our suite of regular
breeding Warblers.
Singing Blackcap (c) Bark
There has
been migrating Yellow Wagtails feeding in the reedbed and it appears also
roosting there . The reeds are very broken down and flattened this year, due to
the winter rains and wind and the sheer weight of Starlings resting on them all
winter. There must also have been a welcome hatch of small insects emerging amid
this more sheltered habitat. They have also been seen feeding amongst the sheep
at Noke.
Swallow at Noke (c) Bark
Cuckoo
arrived last weekend and Whinchat just yesterday (14th April). Big
Otmoor hosted an early Whimbrel, a species that visits annually, but more often
in early May than mid-April.
Whimbrel courtesy of Isaac West.
We found a Bar-tailed Godwit last weekend also out
on Big Otmoor, a bird we failed to record at all last year. This area is
looking very attractive to passage waders at present and will do so until the
sedges grow up and the waters recede. Snipe are starting to drum over Greenaway’s
and Big Otmoor and this activity will only increase as spring progresses.
Bar-tailed Godwit courtesy of Isaac West.
Singing Blackbird and Wren (c) Tom N-L
Residents
and summer visitors are wasting no time in establishing territories and in
finding mates , the volume of song and calling is going up all the time. We
watched a pair of Goldfinches courting beside the hide.
Courting Goldfinches (c) Bark
Not just making their
familiar twittering calls but they were flashing wings, spreading tails and
almost seeming to pirouette at the top of the dead tree in some sort of
courtship dance. It was a behaviour I had not noticed before.
Confiding Cetti's (c) Bark
There are
three booming male Bitterns, one at Noke, another on the reedbed and the third
out in the middle of Greenaways where we have often spotted them in the open.
Two birds were seen together on Wednesday and so we can be certain that we have
at least one female. The male in the photograph can be identified by its distinctly
blue cere.
Distant Bitterns on Greenaways (c) Tom N-L
There have
been regular sightings of Wheatears at Noke in the usual places beside the farm
and along the fences.
Noke Wheatear in the rain. (c) Bark
Swallows have returned once again to the barns. There is
a pair of Green Woodpeckers that are spending a lot of time feeding out in the
sheep fields. There were over eighty Fieldfares out in the fields to the south
of the Closes along with a few Redwings and a pair of Mistle Thrushes, one of which
was singing loudly from the top of a bare tree.
Mistle Thrush (c) Bark
Across many
of the fields Lapwings are sitting on nests and Redshanks are not far behind
them in the breeding process, their calling, chasing and courtship seems to be
everywhere.
Redshank (c) Bark
At the northern
lagoon, a pair of Great Crested Grebes has arrived and may well be constructing
a nest in the reeds to the left of the second screen.
Heron and Great Crested Grebe at the second screen.(c) Bark
Herons are coming and
going bringing food to their chicks in the reedbed, where we think there may be
four or five nests.
Peacock and Bullfinch (c) Bark
It is at
this time of the year that one realises just how much Blackthorn there is across
the moor as the hedgerows become blanketed with frothy white blossom. Birds sit
amongst it and sing and insects feed on the nectar and pollen.
Spring has
truly arrived and perhaps seems just a little bit earlier than usual. Typical
of the season however, the weather now looks set to flip back to winter after a
run of warm southerly air. There have been new arrivals almost everyday with a
smattering of choice scarcities amongst them.
Just two
weeks ago singing Chiffchaffs and Cetti’s were the only warblers in town. This
year the Cetti’s have been particularly vociferous and very showy.
Chiffchaff (c) JR
They have now
been joined by Willow Warblers, Sedge Warblers and Blackcaps and the next
couple of weeks should see the arrival of the other common species, with Garden Warbler eventually
bringing up the rear.
Cetti's Warbler (c) Bark
Wheatears
have been seen in the expected places; out on the MOD land, around the farm buildings
at Noke and near the cattle pens on Greenaway’s.
Wheatear (c) Jeremy Dexter
As is normal
at this time of year Big Otmoor has become the “hotspot” the combination of
pools mud and tussocks once again proving very attractive to passage waders, as
well as to the normal breeding Redshanks and Lapwings.
Redshank Big Otmoor (c) Bark
There has been a winter plumaged
Spotted Redshank, perhaps the one that has been seen several times around Water
Eaton. Ringed and Little Ringed Plovers have also been seen and Black-tailed Godwits in summer plumage have
also been noted out there. The Godwits looking very impressive in their brick
red summer plumage.
Garganey on Big Otmoor (c) Isaac West
I have heard this morning, as I write, that a pair of
Garganey have arrived overnight, they exhibited territorial behaviours last year
and may have bred but it was not possible to confirm it.
Two Whitefronts on Noke Sides (c) Bark
Five White
fronted Geese were on Noke Sides last weekend, but now it seems just two
remain. There was a Black-bellied Brent Goose again on Ashgrave, which is
probably the same bird as was seen around Farmoor.
Brent goose (c) Isaac West
The Glossy Ibis that was
quite elusive and difficult to find seems to have translocated to the Closes
where it is much easier to see. The last Glossy Ibis that spent any length of time
on Otmoor in June and July 2014, also favoured this field. The first Avocet to
visit Otmoor for a long time was seen swimming
Glossy Ibis (c) Oz
at the second screen yesterday
(31st March). We have not had a visit from this emblematic and
attractive wader since 2016.
Breeding Grey Heron (c) Bark
There are a
number of Grey Herons Nesting in the reedbed their heads are sometimes visible
from the second screen The reeds this year are very flattened. They are much easier
to see as they make their feeding flights out and about to the River Ray and
across the reserve.
Drake Tufty (c) Bark
There have been regular sightings of both Great White and
Little Egrets around the moor possibly feeding on the amphibians that are
currently breeding in the ponds and ditches.
Breeding Toads (c) The Early Birder
We now think that there are as
many as three booming male Bittern across the site. I have had reports that
they can be heard in Oddington and a friend in Noke says that booming can be
heard at night.
Often overlooked, a Treecreeper in the Roman Road (c) JR
The Otmoor Year-list is now standing at one
hundred and twenty-six species, which is fourteen species higher than it was at
the same time last year.
Drake Pochard beside the bridleway (c) Bark
We often speculate what might be the next “new” bird
for Otmoor or perhaps even Oxfordshire, perhaps another heron species or
something completely out of left field. Now is the time to be out there in the
field looking, at what is one of the most exciting times of the year.
Snakeshead Fritillaries would once have been right across the water meadows and are now restricted to a Garden in Noke
