Create Floodplain Meadows - and Rare Birds will come!

 

A white stork found the ancient species-rich floodplain meadow at Long Mead this summer full of grasshoppers and bush crickets and other delectable invertebrates. Dividing its time between the recently restored meadows of Pinkhill Farm (where it roosted on the Chimney of the farmhouse) Long Mead and Rachel Murphy’s restoration meadows in-between, it was with us for over ten days until the hay cut.

 

 

 

 

Sarah Hickman at Pinkhill managed to see its ring and track it down to a breeding programme at Cove Valley in Devon. It is a 3 year-old male that was released 2 years ago. Now, it just needs to find a mate!

 

 

 

 

 

The cuckoos arrive at Long Mead on the same day every year - 13th April. This is usually the time that the reed warblers also arrive back from Africa. The cuckoos favourite perch is a dead willow that stands on the edge of the oxbow around Horseshoe Island where there is an extensive reedbed. From here it can spy on the reed warblers as they build their nests.

 

 

 

Eynsham birding guru, Sally Taylor, found a very exposed reed warbler nest this year, visible from the footbridge over to Horseshoe Island. No doubt, the cuckoo mum found it too and laid an egg there. In early August, we watched the extraordinary spectacle of the tiny reed warbler feeding the gaping maw of its monstrous foster child, evidently oblivious that it was not it’s own. (Shades of The Little Shop of Horrors!) The fledgling foster child has to find its own way to Africa as their parents have already left. Hopefully they will all be back next year for another installment of 'NRN Naturewatch'.