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:

lynebbs@btinternet.com

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.