Short Eared Owl © Peter Barker

We have had a very exciting and raptor filled week on the moor and the weekend continued to to give us plenty to look for and look at.
Mondays Great Grey Shrike has sadly not been seen again, but we have not given up entirely. They can roam over large winter territories and there is an lot of appropriate habitat on the moor.
The Ring tailed Hen Harrier likewise has not been seen again, but apart from last year, when there were none, we would expect there to be one regularly hunting over the fields.
Merlin did put in an appearance on Saturday with a female chasing over over the hundred acre field and then giving great scope views as it perched on a bush. The same morning a male was seen hunting along the ditches by Noke.
The Short Eared Owls have been seen intermittently all week and regularly at the weekend. They appeared both on Ashgrave and over the Pill ground. There were certainly two on the Pill at the weekend and probably another on Ashgrave. A pair of Peregrines were seen together on Sunday morning calling loudly and seemingly engaged in courtship activity.
Buzzards, Red Kites and a Sparrowhawk were also seen, but it seemed that in every part of the sky that you looked there were one or two Kestrels. After last winters snow Kestrel was seldom seen at all and it was not until mid summer that they began to be seen with any regularity, now they are everywhere! It is perhaps further evidence that this has been a good summer and autumn for small mammals.
I have finally seen my first Stonechat of the autumn, a male out on some tall grass stems on Greenaways. Winter thrushes are now everywhere and on Sunday morning there were five hundred and fifty plus Fieldfare feeding on the ground on the hundred acre field. (thanks to Paul Greenaway for patiently counting them ) There were also a good number of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits associating with them. Ravens were seen on both days. There were more mixed finch flocks around made up principally of Chaffinches, Reed buntings and Yellowhammers. On Thursday a Crossbill was seen and heard flying over the reserve , the first one this year.
Next weekend we are taking part in the first Otmoor bird race and I estimate that if the weather stays reasonable forty five species should be possible in the four hours of the race, I will report fully next weekend. It is still not too late to enter a team.

Yellow Hammer in Long meadow © Peter Barker

Distant Short Eared Owl © Peter Barker

Record shot of the G.G.S.