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| Great white star of the month (c) Bark |
Autumn has truly arrived and the equinox has come and
gone. It has been an averagely warmer September than usual. After a steady run
of generally dry warm days the end of the month there has been a pattern of low-pressure
fronts bringing occasional spells of heavy rain.
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| Otmoor Pearls (c) Bark |
The cooler nights have meant
that we have experienced some early morning mist and fog patches, that in the
still air, have laced the abundant spiders’ webs with strings of pearls.
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| Comma and blackberries (c) Darrell Woods |
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| GWE showing off (c) JR |
I could populate a whole blog with the series of
stunning images that have been taken by many different photographers over the
past two weeks of the Great White Egret. It has spent most of its time on and
around the lagoon in front of the first screen and has been remarkably
confiding.
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| GWE (c) Tom NL |
It has been coming so close to the screen that photographers have
had to remove teleconverters from their equipment in order to fit the bird on
their screens. It has been fascinating to watch its fishing techniques,
sometimes stalking purposefully and stretching its extraordinary neck out to
the side, at other times literally hopping and fluttering over the water, presumably
to flush the fish.
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| Neck out to one side (c) Bark |
It has often seemed to work in concert with the Cormorants,
taking advantage of the diving birds as they panic the shoals of Rudd. |
Landing (c) Tezzer
|
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| Fishing accomplices (c) Bark |
We have also become very blasé about the Cattle Egrets
that have been out around and amongst the livestock.  |
| Two adult and two juvenile Cattle Egrets (c) Bark |
Although their numbers
have gone down during the last couple of weeks, after a peak of over twenty at
the start the month, there are still two or three to be found out on one or
other of the fields. |
| Egrets preening (c) Paul Wyeth |
Little Egrets too have been ever present, sometimes in
double figures and often feeding out on the Greenaway’s scrapes.
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| Young Garganey first screen (c) Bark |
Garganey were present for all but the last couple of days
of the month with a maximum count of ten mid-month, there were six young birds
and four eclipse adults. It was interesting to notice that when they were swimming,
they appeared to be lower at the front than at the rear, something we had not realised
before and possibly another id pointer. The first of the Wigeon have arrived
still in their rather plain eclipse plumage. |
| Shovellers (c) Bark |
There are also rather more
Shovellers present than earlier in the month. The two, apparently juvenile, Pintail
continued to spend a lot of time at the far end of the lagoon.
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| Bittern in the mist (c) JR |
Bitterns are being
seen regularly as they move between feeding areas in the reedbed and along the
ditches.
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| Black-tailed Godwit Lapwings and Snipe (c) Darrell Woods |
Snipe have been abundant on the lagoon and there have
been a few other waders coming through including occasional Black-tailed
Godwits and a mobile flock of what we assume are resident Lapwings.
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| Winchat at the Pill (c) Bark |
Out at the Pill and on Greenaways there have been
Stonechats, Whinchats and a smattering of Wheatears. We have often come upon
mixed feeding flocks of Tits and Warblers, these feeding parties often seem to
coalesce around flocks of Long-tailed Tits.  |
| Chiffy spotting the fly and taking it.(c) Bark |
Although most of the warblers have
gone there were still Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs amongst them, last
weekend, they were flycatching insects among the brambles at he second screen.
After a period of relative quiet Cetti’s Warblers are become more vocal again
as they stake out territories for the winter.
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| Spotted Flycatcher (c) Bark |
In the middle of the month there were
a couple of Spotted Flycatchers hunting from the dead elms, midway along the
bridleway.
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| Late Reed Warbler (c) Bark |
It was very encouraging to hear that “our” Cranes have
made it back to the Somerset Levels with their youngster in tow and we look
forward to their return next spring. It was also very exciting to hear that one
of the three Curlews chicks fledged on the MOD land, that were ringed and given
numbered “flags” on their legs had appeared and been identified on the west
coast of Ireland in County Kerry, three hundred and forty miles away!
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| Kingfishers are back at the first screen (c) Bark |
We have recently taken delivery from the printer of
the first edition of “The Birds of Otmoor”. It is a booklet produced in
cooperation with the Oxford Ornithological Society as a part of their “Patchwork
Project” which produces guides to important sites within the county. In it I
have described the over two hundred and twenty species that have been recorded in
the Otmoor Basin. I have also added a site map, a seasonal guide to the moor
and also a record of the mammal species that are to be found there. It can be
purchased from the Abingdon Arms in Beckley, by post from Barry Hudson the
secretary of the O.O.S. whose e-mail address is: secretary@oos.org.uk or from myself on
the moor most Saturday and Sunday mornings.
