2015 Vol 9-3 Autumn Final - The RSPB
Transcript of 2015 Vol 9-3 Autumn Final - The RSPB
Next trips: Autumn in Dorset and Hampshire
Inspire
RSPB Oxford Local Group Newsletter Volume 9, Issue 3
September 2015
A very warm welcome to you all at the start
of another new season. I’m sorry to be
missing our first talk – I will be away on
my usual late summer trip to Anglesey
and South Stack – but I am sure that Anne Scott’s will
be the first of another series of excellent presentations.
Have you had a good summer in spotting birds and
other wildlife? It was great to see the marsh harriers
and brief glimpses of a bittern on Otmoor, together with
all the young birds in gangs busily exercising ready for
their long and difficult migration.
I have also enjoyed the summer for the chance to see,
and try to capture pictures of, those other flying
creatures – butterflies, dragonflies and this summer,
moths. Prompted by our excellent talk last season on
moths, I was given a moth trap as a present. I am
slowly coming to terms with all the different species
which can visit a Cowley garden in one night – a good
session can see over 200 per visit – and currently it is
taking me an age to try to identify them all before
release. It is proving really fascinating as there is
normally something large and interesting paying a visit.
I hope to see some of you on the trip to Arne, then the
October talk will soon come around and I can say
“Hello” in person to a lot more of you there.
Have a great season.
Happy birding
Roy (RSPB Oxford Local Group Leader)
In autumn, one of the key attractions of Arne RSPB
reserve (13 September) is the panoramic view from the
viewing screen at Shipstal Point over Poole Harbour.
Here you can watch the large numbers of wading birds
that pass through the harbour or stay over-
winter. Ospreys too remain in the area
until mid-October. The Shipstal Trail also
has a double-decker bird hide overlooking
the salt marsh and mudflats of Arne Bay.
On the Coombe Trail there is a new low
level viewing screen that looks over the
eastern end of Middlebere Channel and
out into the harbour.
Titchfield Haven NNR (11 October)
covers 369 acres of the Meon Valley, with
a variety of watery habitats. Water levels
on the scrapes are dropped at the end of
the summer nesting season to provide
shallow water with exposed mud, attractive to migrating
wading birds. Autumn is also the best time of year to
see resident species such as kingfishers, water rails,
bearded tits and roe deer. The meadows are flooded
later in the year to provide feeding areas for both
wildfowl and visiting black-tailed godwits. The reserve
has a network of paths and boardwalks connecting the
hides, and a tearoom supplying food as
well as hot and cold drinks.
Pulborough Brooks RSPB reserve (22
November), set in the sheltered Arun
Valley within the South Downs National
Park, boasts a great variety of habitats
including wetlands, woodland, and
heathland. Winter ducks such as wigeons,
teals and shovelers start to build up in
numbers from early September; fieldfares,
redwings and other thrushes that feed in
the hedgerows arrive in October.
Thousands of wintering wildfowl and
waders use the flooded brooks and, at this
time of year, there is a chance of seeing short-eared
owl, hen harrier, peregrine, merlin and sparrowhawk.
The reserve has a café serving lunches.
The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654
Roe buck - Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
Pin
tail
- B
en H
all
(rspb-im
ages.c
om
)
Over the last few months, between the
two reed beds on the RSPB’s Otmoor
reserve, two female marsh harriers
appeared to be going through a deal of
nest building and half-hearted courtship
displays. It was widely assumed that they were
producing a practice nest, familiar behaviour in raptors.
Then, on 19 July, instead of two birds there were three
and, by 22 July, four. These “new” birds were not
chased away by the residents but interacted with them.
Also the new birds were uniformly coloured with pale
yellow caps and chins; in fact classic juvenile, freshly-
fledged, plumage.
Puzzling over how this had all come about, I collected a
series of images taken on Otmoor over the previous
months and sent them to our County Bird Recorder, Ian
Lewington. His huge experience and forensic eye
identified the smaller of the two birds as a second
calendar-year male in retarded juvenile plumage. Birds
will suspend a moult when nesting to conserve energy,
which is why our male’s identity remained a mystery for
so long. Recent pictures of this individual show it rapidly
moulting into more conventional adult male plumage;
this should happen very quickly now the chicks have
fledged.
At the end of July we observed the youngsters loafing
about in low bushes together, then taking to the air as
soon as one or other parent appeared; and we were
lucky enough to see several food-passes. By mid
August the four marsh harriers were still present
although seldom seen together. The juvenile birds were
wandering over the whole of the moor while the parent
birds were hunting beyond the reserve.
Yet again it shows that if you provide the right habitat,
wild life will find and fill it and it’s a credit to both reserve
staff and volunteers that this has happened at Otmoor.
Visit Peter’s blog for a weekly update on Otmoor’s wildlife:
http://otmoorbirding.blogspot.co.uk/
Focus on four Marsh Harriers - Peter Barker
What started me birdwatching - Roy Jackson
When I was nine, I had a bike for Christmas – in those
days it was “safe” to just get on it and ride – and, after
I nearly caused an accident within a
few hundred yards of home in
Cowley, I started cycling along the
quieter Sandy Lane, past the old
sewage farm. This is where
Blackbird Leys now stands and I
actually found one or two
blackbirds’ nests with eggs. I didn’t
touch them but when I went back to
look again a few days later I
couldn’t find them. However, I did
see some other birds in the sky and
thought them more interesting.
I realised that putting out food
encouraged birds to come into our
Cowley garden. Next project:
putting out monkey nuts on a string;
that brought in blue and great tits.
(By this time I had bought my first
bird book: the good old Observers
Book of Birds, which I still have.) But what would bring
in other birds? I made a seed feeder from a tin
mounted on a wooden disc so that seed would flow
out into a tray round the outside. What seed to use? I
tried hemp and straight away found
greenfinches coming in. When tall
plants grew from the waste seed,
we discovered that we were
growing cannabis! Luckily it was not
frowned on as much then.
One hard winter in the late 1950s
we had a number of strange
“sparrows” coming into the garden
to feed. It was only when a single
male turned up with a lovely black
head that I realised, using my trusty
OBB, they were all reed buntings;
but we were a long way from any
likely habitat. This was the
beginning of the realisation that
birds don’t always read the same
books as we do and often turn up in
places where they are not supposed
to!
(More of Roy’s reminiscences in our next edition)
Reed b
unting -
Andy H
ay (
rspb-im
ages.c
om
)
Otmoor - juvenile marsh harrier © John Reynolds
Book review by Richard Ebbs: Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands
In November 2014, Dr Mark Avery talked to our local
group about his book, “A Message from Martha”,
concerning the extinction of the passenger pigeon in
North America. In his latest book he comes closer to
home and examines the threats to the hen
harrier and other wildlife on upland grouse-
shooting estates. The hen harrier is red-
listed and threatened with extinction in
England. It predates red grouse (although it
mainly takes voles and meadow pipits),
consequently, this protected bird is illegally
trapped, poisoned and shot on grouse
moors. There is estimated territory in the
English uplands for at least 300 breeding
pairs but in 2010, 12 pairs nested and in 2014
there were only four [12 again in 2015].
Mark examines forensically the reasons for
these low numbers. He looks at the history
of this peculiarly British fieldsport; how the environment
has to be managed to accommodate the large numbers
of grouse required to make shoots viable and the major
difficulties in policing wildlife crime in the large area of
land involved. He does acknowledge that shooting is
economically important to rural communities. His
analysis also shows the effects on the environment:
intensive heather-burning; peat degradation, leading to
decreased carbon storage, and local
flooding caused by lack of absorption after
heavy rain, all of which have financial
consequences.
In Mark’s view, in spite of years of
discussion there have been few, if any,
concessions by the supporters of driven
grouse shooting to limit the damage to the
environment in general, and loss of hen
harriers in particular, caused by their sport.
He, therefore, proposes that the time has
now come for a total ban.
Mark Avery has spoken to people on both
sides of a debate which this book brings
into sharp focus – a must-read for conservationists.
Highly recommended.
Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands Mark Avery (Bloomsbury Natural
History)
By the summer of 2014 we thought
we should start actively campaigning
about the shamefully small number
of hen harriers allowed to survive in
our uplands and decided to join the
rally at Derwent Dam on 10 August.
The forecast for torrential rain was spot-on, thus we
became paid-up members of
the Sodden 570. Having
done it once, it was natural
that we would want to join
the campaign again this
year, especially with no
storms forecast. So we
signed up for Hen Harrier
Day 2015 at Goyt Valley.
Several hundred of us,
including CEO Mike Clarke
and others from the RSPB,
gathered at Goytsclough
Quarry, a steep-sided, tree-lined valley, bright with
wild flowers and alive with birds and insects,
contrasting with the patchwork of burnt and green
heather on the hillside behind us.
Charlie Moores, from Birders against Wildlife Crime
(BAWC), compèred the event. Speakers included Jeff
Knott from RSPB and Jo Smith from Derbyshire
Wildlife Trust, sharing a model grouse butt with Henry
the Hen Harrier.
The stalwarts of the event were, of course, Mark Avery
and Chris Packham. They both spoke with great
passion, backed with good scientific evidence, about
why there is no place for sporting activities that
depend for their success on destroying biodiversity
and, above all, the illegal
persecution of raptors.
We came away determined
to carry on the campaign
and were encouraged to see
that in the next few days
more of the main-stream
media were talking about
grouse shooting as a
contentious issue not an
acceptable tradition. The
petition to ban driven grouse
shooting, started by Mark Avery on the Government’s
website, passed 12,000 signatures on 12 August.
Hopefully, as more people care about its plight, Hen
Harrier Day in future years will be spent celebrating
the successful return of the hen harrier.
BAWC: http://birdersagainst.org/
Petition to ban driven grouse shooting:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104441
Hen Harrier
Day –
Richard &
Lyn Ebbs
Chris Packham and Mark Avery with Henry the Hen Harrier © Lyn Ebbs
RSPB Oxford
Local Group
Committee
President
John Wyatt
Group Leader
Roy Grant
Treasurer
Roy Jackson
Secretary
Anne Clark
Other committee
members and
volunteers
Reg Cox
Lyn Ebbs
Charles Merry
Cecelia Merry
Linda Neal
Keith Neale
David Rolfe
Alan Sherman
Please visit our
Group Website www.rspb.org.uk/groups/oxford/
If you have comments
about Inspire or would
like to contribute,
please contact the
Editor, Lyn Ebbs
Email:
Photo of detail from Hertford
College frieze © Lyn Ebbs
The RSPB is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home.
www.rspb.org.uk
The warden, looking at the clean Cloud-cluttered winter sky, Declared: “They won’t be here Much before dusk; it all depends Upon the level of the light.” The dimmed red sun was still Two fingers’ height above The western ridge. So, to kill time, We walked along the bank Above the wetlands:
A heron, barely visible, Stock-still, against the reeds, A coot upended, vanishing Within the open water, Cat’s-pawed by the wind. We wait and watch. And then The black outriders speeding low Across the water; And we discern, from skylines, East and north, and south, The wheeling cohorts, dark Against the yellow sky. They vanish, rise again, emerge Out of thin air, Then it is now and here - Continuous, present: Thousands and tens of thousands Swooping and turning, Darting, twisting, looping, Climbing, descending,
Linking, dispersing, Surging in clouds and shoals, Never colliding, Describing arcs, parabolas, Sinuous polygons That change before our eyes Can pin them down; Each shifting shape, clear edged Against the dying light; Weightless and voiceless, Only the rush of wings Beating above our heads.
Continuous, present, Here and now. Till, with a single heartbeat, Unannounced, they plummet Into the brittle shelter Of the darkening reeds. The spell is broken; Suddenly it’s cold: There’s scarcely light enough To find the way back to our car. As we return To our known paths and ways, We try and comprehend What lies behind That complex choreography; We wonder at the spirit That impels them every winter dusk To gather here, participate In this wild masterpiece, This murmuration.
Murmuration by Jim Campbell
Sta
rlin
g m
urm
ura
tion -
David
Kja
er
(rspb-im
ages.c
om
)
Otmoor starlings are already starting to flock together at dusk and their numbers should build in the next few weeks.
The murmurations are usually at their best in late November - early December.