Sunday 19th October
A lunch-time visit today found the Meadow in rather a bleak mood with grey clouds and a stiff westerly breeze making it feel rather cold.
Once again the birds were rather thin on the ground with just 8 GOLDEN PLOVER down at the south tail, 4 or 5 RUFF dotted about and a couple of dozen SNIPE trying to sleep in windy conditions by the north reach. No sign of the godwits. A SPARROW HAWK flew low over the north channel, before it was hassled away by a couple of crows.
As I was leaving more golden plover started arriving with a flock of several hundred circling before moving on and the number down at the south tail now up at about 80. This did lead me to wonder where the plover go when they're not on the floods themselves. Do they land further north on the Meadow where they wait before returning when any danger has passed?
From private e-mail (PS):
"you ask were the GPs go when they are not on the meadow. Consistent with what was reported on oxonbirds recently (Ed. c2,500 birds) , I was in Burgess Field yesterday morning and they arrived from the east/north east, overflying the NR in skeins of around 50 birds at a time. They kept arriving over a period of about 10 minutes and, by the time I got back to the meadow, they were all at the edge of the floods in the vicinity of the boat station."
This direction would be consistent with Otmoor so perhaps the birds commute between the two sites.
Evening update from private e-mail (J-PD) : "a flock of 15 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS came in in fading light at 6.15 p.m.".
Off-county news: the ferruginous duck is still present on and off at Calvert in Bucks and the great grey shrike still at Wishmoor Bottom in Berks.
A moulting drake teal © Adam Hartley
Once again the birds were rather thin on the ground with just 8 GOLDEN PLOVER down at the south tail, 4 or 5 RUFF dotted about and a couple of dozen SNIPE trying to sleep in windy conditions by the north reach. No sign of the godwits. A SPARROW HAWK flew low over the north channel, before it was hassled away by a couple of crows.
As I was leaving more golden plover started arriving with a flock of several hundred circling before moving on and the number down at the south tail now up at about 80. This did lead me to wonder where the plover go when they're not on the floods themselves. Do they land further north on the Meadow where they wait before returning when any danger has passed?
From private e-mail (PS):
"you ask were the GPs go when they are not on the meadow. Consistent with what was reported on oxonbirds recently (Ed. c2,500 birds) , I was in Burgess Field yesterday morning and they arrived from the east/north east, overflying the NR in skeins of around 50 birds at a time. They kept arriving over a period of about 10 minutes and, by the time I got back to the meadow, they were all at the edge of the floods in the vicinity of the boat station."
This direction would be consistent with Otmoor so perhaps the birds commute between the two sites.
Evening update from private e-mail (J-PD) : "a flock of 15 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS came in in fading light at 6.15 p.m.".
Off-county news: the ferruginous duck is still present on and off at Calvert in Bucks and the great grey shrike still at Wishmoor Bottom in Berks.
A moulting drake teal © Adam Hartley