Sunday 4 June 2017

Weekend birding, bugging and botanising

Spent yesterday at the farmlands in the morning and then travelled to Oxfordshire and did some work on the Bioblitz at the Old Vicarage- up to 347 species now; see I-RECORD. Also found the Spotted Flycatcher nest.When/if we come to a design stage on the garden the information will be used to identify target species and will assist in the generation of a biodiversity and garden management plan. 

Went to Otmoor today. Ebird list here. Great to bump into Gareth Knass (pioneering member of the first Azores pelagic we did).

Here's a few pics from the weekend. 

 Turtle Dove. What with breeding Turtle Doves, Cuckoos all over, breeding Common Cranes, Bitterns, Marsh Harriers, drumming Snipe, calling Curlew and the fields full of Lapwings and Redshanks- it's like going back in time.

 Common Buzzard- asymmetrical moult with inner secondaries replacing and outer primaries on right wing, possibly suggesting some kind of trauma (not sure what raptor persecution is like in these parts?)

 Male Reed Bunting- not as much song around as earlier in the year


Otmoor soundscape a few weeks ago

Hobby- one of 5-6 over Greenaways. Also had 4 Marsh Harrier today. 

Silver-ground Carpet at the Old Vicarage

I'm going for Grey Pug on this one? 

Foxglove Pug

Xanthogramma pedissequum- the broad yellow marks on abdomen segment 2 distinguish it from X. citrofasciatum

I noticed a few plants I didn't recognise today. I'm going for Spiked Sedge on this one.
and Compact Rush on this. As always any public correction of any ids (other than birds) warmly welcomed in the comments box. Any correction of my bird identifications (including age and sex) will result in me hunting you down and pulling your pants over your head.

The bioblitz team at work 

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