First Two Weeks of June

 

Little Egrets (c) Bark

The first two weeks of the month have been dominated by high pressure, which has led to a run of generally fine, dry, sunny weather with some hot and sometimes humid days.

Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler all with food (c) Bark

On the reserve the business of raising young is proceeding apace. All sorts of birds can be seen gathering food for hungry chicks, the benign weather conditions have encouraged and boosted insect numbers.

Damselflies (c) Dan Miller and Skimmer (c) Bark

Dragonflies and Damselflies are now on the wing and abundant and for the seed-eaters grasses and early flowers, such as dandelions are now setting seed. We watched a young Bullfinch filling its bill with dandelion seeds along the edge of the bridleway.

Young Bullfinch eating dandelion Seeds. (c) Bark

By staying in one spot and watching carefully it is possible to pick up the comings and goings of warblers and to work out where their nests are concealed.

Reed Warbler (c) JR

As the water has drawn down on the scrapes and ditches, Egrets of all three commoner species have been attracted to the site. There are at least fifteen, and possibly more, Little Egrets on the reserve and the MOD land.

Little Egrets (c) Bark

Three Great White Egrets have been seen on Big Otmoor and a single bird from the second screen in the shallows on the right-hand side of the lagoon.

Three Great White Egrets (c) Jeremy Dexter

Single Cattle Egrets are also being seen, but less frequently. As they are often in the company of livestock and the grasses are now over a metre tall, they can be elusive.

Cattle Egret at Enslow wondering whether to visit Otmoor (c) Bark

The long staying Glossy Ibis has changed its preferences and is currently spending time at the second screen often perching up in the scrubby goat willows on the right-hand side of the lagoon.

Great Crested Grebe Chicks getting bigger and adult at the first screen

Over the last few weeks, the Great Crested Grebe chicks at the second screen have changed from being fluffy, stripy little humbugs riding around on their parents back to much sleeker miniature versions of the adults. They are still dependent on their parents for food but are beginning to actively dive and hunt around the edges of the lagoon.

Stunningly elegant (c) Bark

Female ducks are now appearing with multiple ducklings in tow. A Shoveller with seven “shovellettes” was at the first screen.

Shoveller with "trowels" (c) Bark

I watched a very protective Pochard, also with seven tiny ducklings, shepherding them along one of the big ditches. They are already diving for food but have not fully gained control of their buoyancy, they could dive but instead of coming back smoothly to the surface popped up like corks.  

Pochard and ducklings (c) Bark

An Osprey, either a late arrival or an unsuccessful breeder on the way back, made several visits to the moor. It was seen attempting to fish at the northern lagoon without obvious signs of success.

Osprey over (c) Sam Hill

A Barn Owl has been hunting along the River Ray and has been out early in the mornings and early evenings.

Barn Owl from second screen Above (c) JR below (c) Bark

Cuckoos are still chasing and courting across the reserve but will not be around for very much longer once we have passed the solstice.

Cuckoos    above (c) Tricia Miller and below (c) Bark

There are now fluffy chicks on the tern raft which looks very crowded, but there will be

Tern Raft (c) Bark

security in numbers. The adults are very determined and fearless in the defence of their airspace. They challenge everything, including corvids, gulls and Kites and it is noticeable that the Marsh Harriers give the raft a very wide berth. The Terns are hunting over the whole of the moor and along the river Ray to provision the chicks. I watched an adult try to feed a fish that was just a bit too big to a tiny chick and eventually gave up and ate it itself.

Oystercatcher and chick (c) Pete Roby

and a week later (c) Pete Roby

Oystercatchers have bred successfully on Big Otmoor. They now have three well grown youngsters, that are looking more and more like their parents as time goes on. There are Lapwing chicks and Redshank chicks to be spotted amongst the tussocks out in the middle of the field.

Grass Snakes are being seen frequently (c) Pete Roby

There have been further additions to the Year-list even though we are late in the migration season a Spoonbill went through the reserve, possibly stopping on the MOD land and a Little Stint was seen on a more remote part of the reserve that is not accessible to the public.

Spoonbill (c) Tezzer

This has brought the year total to one hundred and fifty-seven , which is remarkable given we are not yet quite halfway through the year. The only likely addition in the next few weeks, apart from some unexpected mega rarity, is Quail. A bird that reveals itself almost exclusively by its voice, as it scuttles about in the long grass calling: “wet my lips… wet my lips”! Listen out for it.

"Chipping" snipe on the ground (c) Darrell Wood and Flying Snipe (c) Bark

Second half of May

 

Glossy Ibis (c) Tom N-L

“Springwatch” has started this week on the TV and that always means that it is almost summer! Spring this year has been very cold and dry in April and cold and excessively wet in May. Global warming doesn’t always mean that it is going to be hotter everywhere, what it does mean is that weather patterns and conventions are going to be disrupted and change. The altered pattern this year has resulted in later greening and blooming of trees and bushes and consequently fewer insects for birds to feed on and a delay to the start of the breeding season.

Hobbies (c) JR

On the moor the cooler temperatures have meant that very few dragonflies and damsel flies have emerged, and this has made things hard for the Hobbies that feed on them when they are newly arrived from the south. By the 25^th May I had seen no dragonflies at all and on that day saw my first Banded Demoiselle. I imagine that the emergence of odontata is governed partly by the water temperature.

Glossy ibis JR

There is still a lot to be seen however, and many of our “star” species have been showing well. The long staying (almost resident) Glossy Ibis is very much at home on the Closes and is becoming increasingly confiding and tolerant of people. It will often feed close to the track through the carpark field and can offer superb photo-opportunities for the patient.

Above (c) Paul Thomas  and both below (c) Tom N-L

There have been regular sightings of two Great White Egrets across the moor with them favouring Greenaways and Ashgrave, sometimes they behave like a pair and other times are totally separate.

Little Egrets (c) Bark

There have also been significant numbers of Little Egrets on the fields and scrapes with one party of twelve on Big Otmoor yesterday (30^th May) in addition to the smaller parties of twos and threes scattered over the whole site. On Saturday we picked up an egret flying across Ashgrave that had a yellow bill and shorter neck, plus its wingbeats seemed too rapid for a Great White. We looked out across The Closes where it had landed and sure enough it was an adult Cattle Egret, in the scope it showed an orangey tone to its head. We completed our suite of Egrets with a Great White that flew off Greenaways and over onto the MOD land. I think Saturday 29^th May was the first time that all three common Egrets have been seen on the same site on the same day in Oxfordshire.

Early morning Crane (c) Bark

The Common Cranes that have been coming to us in the spring and summer for the past seven years are once again offering some spectacular sightings and posing some interesting questions. There have been up to six different birds present and we have frequently seen mating and courtship behaviours as well as some very physical territorial disputes. Three of the birds are colour ringed and we know their specific identities but there have also been three unrung birds one of which is a male and who we believe is the progeny of two other birds in the re-introduction programme.

Cranes (c) JR

Two of the birds may be a pair but do not always behave as if they are! They have been commuting regularly between Otmoor and another Oxfordshire site often being photographed as they overfly Farmoor. The comings and goings of all these birds is yet to result in any successful breeding outcomes but does provide an ongoing narrative worthy of a soap opera.

Bugling, mating and fighting (c) Bark

Bitterns have continued to boom throughout the month and if they have nested successfully, it will not be long before they start to be seen making feeding flights out from where the chicks are hidden in the reedbed. The males take no part in either the incubation or the raising of the young. Marsh Harriers are roving over the whole site and both male and female birds are hunting actively which suggests that they may well be provisioning chicks, we have seen several food passes where the male comes in with food and calls up the female to receive the food item in an aerial exchange.

Bittern (c) Nick Truby

Cuckoos are chasing and mating and last weekend I noticed that the one being pursued was a hepatic female. We have hosted one of these more unusual morph Cuckoos for several years recently but failed to see one last year.

Swift (c) Nick Truby

Over the last couple of weekends low cloud has meant that large numbers of Swifts and hirundines have been feeding closer to the ground and often low across the water at the first and second screens. They have also been hunting in the lea of larger trees picking up insects that have been blown out of the trees, especially the oaks and the poplars behind the first screen.

Swift over the reedbed. (c) Bark

At the second screen the Common Tern colony now numbers around twenty birds although it is difficult to work out how many birds are sitting on eggs and there may be others out fishing. When ever a bird returns there is a lot of calling and shrieking a tern colony is never a quiet haven!

Common Tern (c) Bark

There is also a pair of Great Crested Grebes on the lagoon, and they currently have three stripy chicks that are spending most of their time riding around on the back of one or other of the parents.

Great Crested Grebe (c) JR

Drake Garganey are still on site, being seen both on Big Otmoor and the northern lagoon. We have not seen a female for a while, and we have speculated that there may be one or two hidden away somewhere, sitting on eggs.

Pochard courtship (c) JR

Likewise, there is still a drake Pintail lurking around the low willows out to the right-hand side of the lagoon. Pintail bred on Otmoor last year for the first time, not just for the site but also for the county and we are wondering if it might happen again.

More of the same (c) Bark

Warblers are working hard to catch up with their breeding cycles and birds can be seen carrying bills full of food or nest materials into the depths of brambles and bushes, whilst there are still late comers singing hard as they advertise for mates or stake claim to territories.

A suite of Warblers (c) Bark

There are several hundred larger subadult gulls on the reserve loafing about on Ashgrave and Big Otmoor. They are mostly Lesser Black-backs and some Herring Gulls but are probably worth some careful grilling as there could be a Caspian Gull lurking amongst them.

A fine morning after all the rain (c) Tom N-L