Oxfordshire weekend

I visited Otmoor this morning for the first time since restrictions. 77 species in less than a two mile walk (Ebird list here). There's not too many places I visit with that density of species and I only covered a fraction of the site. Highlights included the Cranes, a male Garganey, a third-summer Yellow-legged Gull, Marsh Harrier, at least 3 Cuckoos, Curlew, Redshanks and Oystercatchers and a booming Bittern.

In the afternoon went with the family to Aston Rowant for a walk. Had Firecrest and Marsh Tit in the woods.

The mothing has picked up both at Beddington in the week and back at the Old Vic. The cold north east wind and then the frosty nights have finally abated with warmer days and milder evenings. Things are set to improve as this week goes on.

Common Cranes (photo added on 030620 due to sensitivity issues at time due to breeding) 

 Red Kite at Aston Rowant. It was here in the Chilterns that Red Kites were re-introduced into England. There's been a large influx of Red Kites to the South Coast recently. I was wondering if the reduced traffic flow had created food shortages (of road kills) for them so birds were going on longer range hunting flights (in addition to second calender year birds on the usual walkabouts) and were concentrating on the coast. There's been a report locally of a Red Kite stealing food from a toddler too .There was a movement of 300+ in Cornwall last week which is unprecedented for that part of the country. As there are several Black Kites in the country too, presumably there is also an element of continental migrants moving in too. 

 Male Wheatear at Otmoor 

Early Purple Orchid at Aston Rowant  

 The first Burnished Brass of the year at Beddington

 Light Brocade at Beddington

 Rustic Shoulder-knot at Beddington

 Brown Rustic at the Old Vic

Dark Brocade at the Old Vic (I think- awaiting confirmation). No- it's a Large Nutmeg- still a first for site. Thanks Dave Wilton for id.

 View from Aston Rowant looking north (above and below). The Cretaceous chalk looks north over progressively older rocks, so its literally looking back in time. The oldest rocks of North Oxfordshire are lower Jurrasic (about 200 mya). The chalk was laid down as recently as 65 mya.

Lockdown Ease- scramble to Kent

What with an ease in lockdown and what could be a brief bit of freedom before the second pandemic wave, Kojak and I headed off to Kent for  a day's birding. We did Shellness (Ebird list HERE), Oare (HERE) and Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve (HERE). It was pretty tough going with a strong cold North East wind blowing. However we managed 86 species but we certainly missed Spring while lockdowned with just a few waders present in the Thames Estuary. Highlights included a few Barwits, Knots, Sanderling, Whimbrel, Hobby, a Mandarin (at Sevenoaks) and plenty of Marsh Harriers. A Black Kite in the area managed to avoid our detection but was seen near Faversham at the beginning of the day and over Harty Ferry on Sheppey at the end of the day - so basically the same area we spent most of the day without seeing it!

 Bar-tailed Godwits, Knot and a Sanderling 

 Only one adult male summer Bar-tailed Godwit in a flock of 64 birds- perhaps its a non-breeding flock or a flock dominated by females still heading north (females winter further south than males so could travel north later than males?).  There was also a presumed non-breeding flock of Black-tailed Godwits at Oare which often summer at Oare and don't bother migrating to Iceland.  First-summer and non-breeding waders notoriously create semi-resident or limited migratory groups- only migrating part of the way to the breeding grounds. The Knots were also in non-breeding plumage suggesting this group of birds are in no rush to get to the breeding grounds. Barwits winter from north-west Europe to west Africa (there were large number in Dakhla Bay, Western Sahara when we visited HERE). According to the migration atlas birds that winter in the UK breed in Northern Europe and Western Siberia and the birds that winter further south and migrate through the UK in Spring are heading to the Siberian Taimyr and Yamal peninsulas. There is generally a month between the UK breeders leaving and the African migrants arriving. Both populations head to the Wadden Sea before they fatten up to continue further north or east east. Unlike Dunlin where the UK wintering population (alpina) and the migratory population (schinzii) are taxonomically different, in Barwit its the same sub-species. Our Barwits are of the nominate lapponica which differ from the Asian sub-species baureri, one of the main characteristics of nominate is the clean white underwings (barred on the Asian race). Barwits are famous for completing long range, non-stop migrations. 

 The only Whimbrel of the day 

 Female Marsh Harrier, extensive cream on this bird, presumably an older bird

A Grey Seal battling the white horses on the rough Swale

 A second-summer Yellow-legged Gull at Sevenoaks.

It was my first visit to Sevenoaks reserve, which is an impressive inland site. Over 200 hirundines were hawking low over the water this evening presumably keeping out of the wind

The Old Vicarage- Quiet couple of days

Temperatures dropped from the mid 20s to 12 C between Saturday and Sunday and this morning there was a frost too. The wind was very strong on Monday so all in all the last two or three days have been pretty tough going. It was a good excuse to get some work done and I spent the last two days writing the moth and butterfly list of the Azores. 

Also did a bit on the garden, did the airfield Sunday morning before the front moved in and also moth trapping Saturday night when it was still warm.

We finally harvested our first crop today which we planted from seed- one radish (below).

Potatoes have gone in (above) and Tomatoes are waiting (below)

The Ponies have been moved around a bit to make more space for some more food growing 

 Scalloped Hazel - a first for the Old Vicarage from Saturday night 

Female Bee Moth 

The Airfield is clearly intensive agriculture with huge monocultures and clear signs of large scale herbicide/chemical treatment (below). However just shows that this kind of farming is not necessarily bad for wildlife considering the large populations of farmland birds up there including Corn Buntings, Yellow Wagtails, Skylarks, Grey Partridge etc . In fact to be honest before I moved to the countryside I was led to believe from the conservation literature that it was a complete wasteland of birdless and natureless chemical saturated monocultures. That may be the case in some areas but in the Worminghall area everywhere we have explored has been pretty interesting and there are all sorts of little magic spots and hotspots. As lockdown now begins to be eased , it was interesting to discover the wildlife in regular farmland. Here's the ebird list that we started about a month ago HERE

The Old Vicarage- The Return of the Spot Fly

Back with the family today and since I was last here on Tuesday our garden Spotted Flycatchers have arrived. Also had the first Swifts today- three weeks later than at Beddington only 70 miles to the south. 2 Greylag Goose flew over the garden this evening which was a garden tick. Garden highlights during lockdown have so far included Common Scoter, Little Grebe, Water Rail, Coot, Oystercatcher, Curlew, Common Sandpiper, Reed Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Sand Martin, Cuckoo, Barn Owl and nightly Tawny Owls. The garden bird list is now on 85 and the pan-species list is 709.

The Worminghall Area hotspot list that we started at the beginning of lockdown is now on 100 species. List HERE,

Spotted Flycatcher (above and below) 

Sound files on Ebird HERE

Beddington Farmlands- little grey jobs

Here's a photo selection that won't help much with public engagement in nature. The cream of the crop from the Beddington moth trap over the last couple of nights. 

 Grey Tortrix agg

 Platyedra subcineria 

 Elachista sp?

 Agonopterix arenella  Comment from Stewart  'looks like a worm alstromeriana or maybe oscellana. arenella doesn't have any rust marks in it like yours'

 Cydia servillana (?)

 Carrion Moth Monopis (weaverella) ?

Also had the first Knot Grass of the year 

Beddington Farmlands- Black-necked Grebes

Managed to get over the farmlands a couple of times while down in London working. Ebird list from today HERE and Wednesday HERE. Dodge found two Black-necked Grebes this morning and there was also a pair of Oystercatchers flying around and displaying too. Other highlights today included a Kingfisher and 3 Red Kite together.
Pretty quiet on the moth front despite the warm weather- last night was mainly a few very boring looking micros like Platyedra subcinerea and Ephestia unicolrella. A Small Heath butterfly was a new for year.

 Black-necked Grebes - the 12th record for the farmlands following two birds in 2015. The first record was in 1993, also of a pair which were seen in May and June (and also a young bird was seen in September). This started a run of records in the 1990s with 2 records in 1994,  one in 1997, one in 1999 and then two records in 2003 and one in 2007. Then a long gap until the 2015 birds and then today's birds. Most have been spring/summer birds and several records include pairs indicating that the local vagrancy can be accounted to by prospecting travels. Young and non-breeding birds have also been recorded (between July and October) and may be the offspring of these locally exploring birds. 

 Oystercatchers- the first time I've seen displaying birds over the farmlands. We are hoping that now the landfill is closed and there are no so many gulls on the lakes that the lakes maybe more attractive to new breeding birds such as Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatchers and even Black-necked Grebe- all of which were on the lakes today displaying. 

 Hobby, appearing during the evenings 

 Looks like another good year for Reed Warblers. Reed Warblers are going through the roof at the farmlands with nearly 50 breeding pairs in recent years. This is in contrast to Whitethroat and Willow Warbler which seem to be consistently decreasing year on year. Willow Warbler have been particularly low in numbers this spring locally. 

A bizzare fight between a Kestrel and Magpie on the footpath

Old Vicarage- Lockdown continues

Like half the world we are still trying to amuse ourselves during lockdown so its been more wildlife stuff around the garden, food growing, noc-migging, photography, vis-missing and a few daily walks- mainly to the airfield but also to Bernwood Forest yesterday (singing Willow Warbler and Cuckoo). 

Here's a few highlight in pics. The biggest surprise was a briefly singing Reed Warbler in the front garden. 

BIRDS

 The local Red Kites are always a good photography subject 

 Northern Wheatear (presumed nominate) on Airfield today again (anyone know what the strange looking plant is in background?) 

 Corn Bunting on the airfield 

 The best pic I could get of the Airfield Grey Partridge 

 Had seven Common Terns go over the airfield this morning 

Summer male Pied Wagtail 

MAMMALS

 Fallow Deer in Bernwood Forest

 Brown Hare on the Airfield- quite a few up there. Also had Fox on the camera trap. 

MOTHS

 Syndemis musculana- a new one for the Old Vic

 Had a couple of Poplar Hawk-moths

 I went for Small Square-spot on this 

 Seraphims (above and below) showing variation 

 Pinion-spotted Pug again! I had one last month which was only one of six records in the UK (See Birguides article HERE). Maybe the same individual? 

NOC-MIG

The noc-mig highlights include Oystercatcher, Common Sandpiper and Lesser Whitethroat migrating over at night. 

 Oystercatcher 

 Common Sandpiper 

Lesser Whitethroat 

Sound files HERE

WILDLIFE/FOOD GARDENING

Recent additions include Sweetcorn going into the beds