H ello everyone and welcome

to our new season of talks

and walks. That, in itself,

seems strange having had

so long away due to the events that involved all of

us in so many ways. We have an exciting

programme of talks as always but this season

most of our trips are shorter, more local and not

always at weekends.

For me it is strange, having been one of the many

who had to self-isolate, I have not ventured far

and our first meeting will be the first time I have

been to any event, indoors, since our meeting in

March 2020. It’s really a first day at school

moment!

We don’t know how many people will be at

Sandhills for our first meeting, we hope there will

be a good number. Certainly we have heard from

a number of new people who wish to join, which is

fabulous. I can understand if some people are still

wary but I hope that over time we will return to

normal.

Currently though, things will be different to how

we remember them. At our first meeting we will

have no refreshments, so that we can work out

the best way to manage them. We will take a

short break and you are welcome to bring your

own refreshments. We will also have to clean

down the tables and chairs afterwards. We will

not require people to wear masks, but feel free to

wear one if you are more comfortable with that.

If we are able to continue with our refreshments,

we will need some willing volunteers to help us

out. This also applies to the raffle. It is good to

have both of these things and we can run

meetings without them but it is so much nicer to

have them. Our committee will continue to

address this but if any of you are able to help us

out then we would be very happy to hear from

you.

Back to birds though. There has been some

exciting bird news locally during the summer,

which you can read about below. Especially,

please check out the back page for news of our

important Otmoor ‘baby’ and the RSPB appeal to

improve this wetland further by purchasing more

land.

Those of you who have already seen our

programme will have spotted the changes that

we’ve made to our birdwatching trips, too. They

are mid-week, much closer to home and the first

four are by car. On 8 September we go to

Otmoor; in October to Tring Reservoirs; in

November to Brandon Marsh and in December to

Bury Down. We also hope to make a coach trip to

our popular winter venue of Slimbridge in

January. Details are on our website and we do

hope that you will come along to enjoy the

pleasures of birding in company again.

For those of you who have been able to get out

and about I hope that you have enjoyed seeing

some of the exciting birds that are on offer around

the county and the UK this summer.

It will be great to see you all again.

Happy birding

Best wishes

Roy (RSPB Oxford Local Group Leader)

Volume 15, Issue 3 September 2021

The RSPB is a registered charity in England & Wales 207076, in Scotland SC037654

RSPB Oxford Local Group Newsletter

Inspire

When you look at the huge variety of beak shapes and sizes that birds possess, it’s unlikely that there would be a one-size-fits-all design for their tongues either. The basics are similar to our own with muscles, nerves, blood vessels and connective tissue.

The whole apparatus fits into the lower mandible and after that the differences start to accumulate.

Can you roll your tongue into a tube? More than two thirds of adult humans can – we all have muscles attaching our tongues to our mouths (extrinsic) and muscles that control tongue movement (intrinsic) – but parrots are one of the few birds that have intrinsic muscles controlling tongue movement.

Can you stick your tongue out? It would be surprising if you said ‘No’ but very few bird families can. Woodpeckers are the classic example of birds that extend their tongue to obtain food – green woodpeckers can often be seen using their sticky tongues to mop up ants on anthills on warm summer days. Hummingbirds belong to another tongue-extending group, along with other nectar feeders such as sunbirds.

The surface layer of the tongue, like ours, is skin (epithelium) but in birds this can be hardened at the tip and along the sides with keratin, the same material that makes up feathers and claws. Watch how greenfinches manipulate sunflower seeds on your bird feeder using tongue and beak; this is what makes them so adept at getting the hard husk off the seeds to reveal the seed heart. Many birds also have hardened

barb like structures on their tongues that point backwards and help with swallowing food and preventing regurgitation. These are particularly important for fish-eating birds.

While humans have over 10,000 taste buds, birds have far fewer: pigeons have between 27 and 59 for example. Also because of those keratinised tips, the taste buds are found at the base of the tongue and on the roof or floor of the mouth. Birds can taste sweet, salt, brine, bitter, fats and sugar

concentrations. Some waders such as sanderlings and dunlins have been shown to be able to use their taste receptors to recognize where worms have been crawling in sand. There is a lot more going on inside those beaks than you might realise. Reference: http://www.nejohnston.org/birds/documents/AvianTongues_Johnston.pdf

Focus on

birds’

tongues

Egrets, we have a few! This summer has been notable for egrets, with the evident breeding success of cattle egrets at Blenheim. Although they have never bred in Oxfordshire before, we spoke to a birder who recorded five successful nests in the heronry at Blenheim Palace this year. On 10 August, six adults and ten juveniles were counted there and there were sightings in other parts of the county, too.

One turned up at Otmoor at the beginning of June and their numbers continued to build. They were up to nine by mid-August and at least 20, possibly 30, by early September. Does that mean there was another nesting colony nearby or are these other birds passage migrants?

Little egrets are Otmoor regulars; they have bred at Blenheim, too, and also at Dix Pit. So far, we have no evidence that they have bred on Otmoor but their numbers have also been high on the reserve this summer, reaching the twenties by mid July.

Great egrets have also been around and about in the county, mostly as singletons, but three did appear

together on Otmoor in early June.

And, while not an egret, let’s not forget the glossy ibis that kept visitors to the reserve entertained in the late spring and early summer.

It’s some compensation for the wet summer to know that these wading birds have been able to take advantage of the moist soil conditions and standing water. Let’s hope we see more of them next year.

Cattle egret and friend © Fergus Mosey

Great crested grebe © Lyn Ebbs

A holiday in the New Forest, Wiltshire & Dorset

In early summer this year, with travel restrictions lifting,

the opportunity came for a few days in the New Forest

that seemed too good to miss. The holiday was

organised and guided by Lance Degnan and Nick

Whitehouse of Birding Abroad (temporarily renamed

as Birding At Home). Nick has lived in Bournemouth

for many years and has detailed knowledge of the

varied local habitats, so we knew that, as well as some

great birding, we were pretty

sure to see some other

highlights of the area’s natural

history.

At first glance it looked as

though the trip itinerary had

been based on many of the

day trips that we had done with

the local group: Durleston,

Beaulieu Road Station,

Studland but there is a big

advantage to being on the spot and being able to start

early and stay late without a long tiring journey at each

end of the day. Being close at hand, we were able to

make an evening trip to see nightjars – one of our

target species – and woodcocks. On our first morning

we were favoured with great views of a honey

buzzard, plus a more distant goshawk. We also made

a trip to the Great Bustard Project on Salisbury Plain

and saw five birds, including one female with a chick.

On Martin Down

we were able to

get good views of

stone curlews but

Montague’s

harriers eluded

us.

Though the

weather was

sometimes a bit

English – clouds

and rain – we had enough warm sun to see

many of the local butterflies, silver-studded blue

and Lulworth skipper being particular highlights.

The number of reptiles we saw was really

outstanding with close views of adders, grass

snakes and sand lizards. We also had sightings of

smooth snake and slow worm. Our mammal count

included fallow, roe and sika deer and our overall bird

species count was 93. It’s certainly an area that

rewards spending time and will definitely be on our list

of places to visit again.

With popular birding spots around

Oxfordshire having plenty of water,

it’s not unusual for ospreys to be

spotted over the county. We

usually get a few sightings during

spring and autumn migration over

one of the gravel pits, Farmoor

reservoir or RSPB Otmoor.

What is more unusual is for one

to turn up over the Otmoor reed

beds in mid-July and for us to

be able to identify the individual

bird.

Since 1966, as well as the

unique metal rings supplied by

the British Trust for Ornithology,

the Roy Dennis Wildlife

Foundation has been ringing

ospreys by fitting a plastic

colour ring to the other leg.

They try to ring as many chicks as they can every year

and have now ringed over 1500 young ospreys.

The colour ring is unique and allows individual birds to

be identified in the field. The foundation has found this

particularly valuable both for following birds at their

nests and identifying the origins of new birds in an

area. They have an online form, and are extremely

interested if sightings, including digital pictures

showing the colour ring, are reported to them. Osprey

colour rings in the UK are marked with a combination

of two digits or letters reading up the ring from the foot.

In recent years, colour rings in Scotland have been

placed on the left leg and those in England and Wales

on the right leg.

Thanks to some quick camera

work by regular Otmoor birder,

Jeremy Dexter, the ring on this

bird was read as white on blue

059. Following a submission to

the Roy Dennis Wildlife

Foundation, this osprey was

identified as a two-year-old

male, ringed at Rutland Water.

The bird is a bit of a wanderer;

he was seen in June at Cors

Dyfi reserve at Machynlleth,

Wales and there is a YouTube

video (see the link below) showing him trying to intrude

at their resident osprey pair’s nest site. When it comes

to identifying birds, it seems the feet can be the most

important features.

Blue 059 Rutland Male - YouTube

Keep

looking

up

Sand lizard © Lyn Ebbs

Silv

er-s

tudded b

lue ©

Lyn E

bbs

Osprey 059 © Jeremy Dexter

RSPB Oxford

Local Group

Committee

Group Leader

Roy Grant

Treasurer

Roy Jackson

Secretary

Anne Clark

Other committee

members and

volunteers

Petula Banyard

Reg Cox

Lyn Ebbs

Paddy Gallagher

David Rolfe

Please visit our

Group Website www.rspb.org.uk/groups/oxford/

You can also find us on

Facebook www.facebook.com/oxfordrspb

If you have comments

about Inspire or would

like to contribute,

please contact the

Editor, Lyn Ebbs

Email:

lynebbs@btinternet.com

Front page photos: St

Andrew’s Church, Old

Headington and sundial

detail. Yew berries all © Lyn

Ebbs

The RSPB is the country’s largest nature conservation charity, inspiring everyone to give nature a home.

www.rspb.org.uk

Cranes back after 500 years

Otmoor regulars among our readership are probably aware of some of the highs and lows that RSPB staff and volunteers have experienced since the first pair of cranes, graduates of the Great Crane Project (see the link below), turned up on Otmoor in the spring of 2015. These two birds – female, Maple Glory, and male, Wycliffe, – both hatched in 2012, went on to have six unsuccessful breeding attempts. One of the issues was trying to give the birds the opportunity to breed with minimal disturbance from humans. Volunteer wardens were briefed not to mention the cranes to visitors or post information on social media but it is quite difficult hiding a bird that is 20% bigger than a grey heron!

In 2020 Wycliffe and Maple Glory were joined by a second pair: the female, Excalibird, hatched in 2013 and the male, Ted, hatched in 2014. Both pairs themselves hatched one chick in 2020 but both were lost, probably predated, at a young age. Sadly, after the 2020 breeding season, Wycliffe disappeared and is believed to have died. In 2021, Ted and Excalibird returned and, what we had all been waiting for, this time managed to successfully fledge a chick. The reserve staff shared the good news on local television and Twitter.

This from David Wilding, Reserve Manager on 1 September: “We are so

excited that cranes have successfully bred in Oxfordshire [this year]. For the last six years, cranes have attempted to breed on Otmoor but for one reason or another, they’ve not been successful. Even last year, we had two pairs attempting to breed but after territorial disputes and fights, both again failed to breed. It was really sad news to start with. However, there was really great news in 2021. The second pair that arrived last year actually bred successfully and they managed to fledge one chick. This is amazing news. This is the first time in over 500 years that cranes have bred successfully in Oxfordshire.”

This is yet another reason to celebrate

the presence of

this lovely home

for nature in

Oxfordshire. You

can help to

increase its

benefits: an area

of land has come

up for sale next to

the nature

reserve, and

buying it is a rare

opportunity that

the RSPB just

can’t miss. The

reserve is already

home to so much threatened wildlife,

like curlews and lapwings. Since the

RSPB bought Otmoor in the 1990s, it’s

been transformed into a special wetland

that’s even brought common cranes

back to the area. With more land, it

could support even more. The link below

will take you to a form to make a

donation to the Otmoor Land Purchase

Appeal.

Otmoor Appeal Donation Form | The RSPB

Home | The Great Crane Project