Travelling light today for a quick trip to Ot Moor to see 50,000 starlings perform an aerial display at their roost. I’m hoping for a good show but you can never tell with nature. I will alight at Oxford and cycle the 10k or so to the reserve.
1400 Threading my way through central Oxford along back lanes that, were it not for the tarmac and double yellow lines, can’t have changed in hundreds of years.
1622 At Ot Moor – a bleak, flat reserve with short-eared owls flying around. Quite a few people walking. I’m sitting behind a rush screen overlooking the starling roost waiting for dusk and the flocks of starlings. Speaking to a birder on the way here he said that the water shortage had kept some of the starlings away. Let's wait and see.
1632 Very quiet. Distant hiss of the M40. In the distance a church spire is silhouetted against the sky. Shoveler ducks do a slow lap round the shallows, gliding head down working the mud.
1632 Very quiet. Distant hiss of the M40. In the distance a church spire is silhouetted against the sky. Shoveler ducks do a slow lap round the shallows, gliding head down working the mud.
1653 A handful of starlings have arrived...
1800 ...and that was that! Not a murmur of a murmeration. Gave it up and cycled back to Oxford in the dark, picking my way through the country roads. Not my greatest success in this year but at least I can tick off the location.
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