Sunday 5th to Saturday 11th July
Another week of butterflies and juvenile birds on the Meadow with not much that's radically different but still enough variation to keep it interesting.
On the Meadow itself it's business as usual with the usual Meadow birds: wood pigeons, corvids, lapwings, starlings, skylarks, linnets and pied wagtails can all be found feeding on the Meadow. Swallows, swifts, house martins and sand martins by the river are all to be seen as well. There is at least one lapwing chick which I've seen and is now relatively mature though I don't think it is flying yet. Whenever one walks onto the part of the Meadow where the young are situated the parent birds get agitated and start flying around and calling as a distraction technique. Despite knowing that the young are there it's remarkably difficult to find them: I suspect that once the alarm has been raised they hunker down and freeze and are then very well camouflaged.
My suspicions about the OYSTERCATCHER feeding along the river shore have been confirmed with a sighting a single bird there and on another occasion four birds flying along the river (Roly Pitts private e-mails). Roly has also seen a pair of COMMON TERNS on a couple of occasions: apparently they often hang out by Godstow lock, sitting on the posts there. Roly also reports some mute swan cygnets down by Fiddler's Island and some grey herons along the river.
Within Burgess Field there are still plenty of butterflies about including Ringlets, Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns though the first two are starting to look rather faded now and may not be around for much longer. Last week I raised the identification issue of small versus essex skippers. After further research I am pleased to report that both species have been found. The only way to tell them apart is to view them from head on and to examine the underside of the bulbous tip to the antennae: small skippers have orange tips whereas they are black for the essex. Other species that have been seen include: a very worn Painted Lady, a Peacock and a Small Tortoiseshell as well as Small and Large Whites and Speckled Woods.
Addendum:
Late afternoon on Saturday a LITTLE EGRET was seen down by the river (Roly Pitts private e-mail)
A marbled white, now starting to look rather faded
A small skipper from the side...
..and from head on. If you look at the underside of the tip of the antenna on the left of this rather fuzzy picture you may just be able to see that it is orange, identifying it as a small rather than an essex skipper.
A young carrion crow pestering its parent for food.
All photos © Adam Hartley
On the Meadow itself it's business as usual with the usual Meadow birds: wood pigeons, corvids, lapwings, starlings, skylarks, linnets and pied wagtails can all be found feeding on the Meadow. Swallows, swifts, house martins and sand martins by the river are all to be seen as well. There is at least one lapwing chick which I've seen and is now relatively mature though I don't think it is flying yet. Whenever one walks onto the part of the Meadow where the young are situated the parent birds get agitated and start flying around and calling as a distraction technique. Despite knowing that the young are there it's remarkably difficult to find them: I suspect that once the alarm has been raised they hunker down and freeze and are then very well camouflaged.
My suspicions about the OYSTERCATCHER feeding along the river shore have been confirmed with a sighting a single bird there and on another occasion four birds flying along the river (Roly Pitts private e-mails). Roly has also seen a pair of COMMON TERNS on a couple of occasions: apparently they often hang out by Godstow lock, sitting on the posts there. Roly also reports some mute swan cygnets down by Fiddler's Island and some grey herons along the river.
Within Burgess Field there are still plenty of butterflies about including Ringlets, Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns though the first two are starting to look rather faded now and may not be around for much longer. Last week I raised the identification issue of small versus essex skippers. After further research I am pleased to report that both species have been found. The only way to tell them apart is to view them from head on and to examine the underside of the bulbous tip to the antennae: small skippers have orange tips whereas they are black for the essex. Other species that have been seen include: a very worn Painted Lady, a Peacock and a Small Tortoiseshell as well as Small and Large Whites and Speckled Woods.
Addendum:
Late afternoon on Saturday a LITTLE EGRET was seen down by the river (Roly Pitts private e-mail)
A marbled white, now starting to look rather fadedA small skipper from the side.....and from head on. If you look at the underside of the tip of the antenna on the left of this rather fuzzy picture you may just be able to see that it is orange, identifying it as a small rather than an essex skipper.A young carrion crow pestering its parent for food.All photos © Adam Hartley