Reed Bunting and Hobby at Oare Marshes

A quiet lunchtime at Oare Marshes. I actually arrived at 11.30 and ate my chicken salad sandwiches early!

I got a very cropped shot of a Reed Bunting with a metal ring on its leg.

I hadn't really noticed the amount of grey on the rump and scapulars(?), picked up also on the underparts, and contrasting with the white pattern around the neck. The undertail coverts and belly are also whiter than the rest of the undersides. In some pictures on the internet the grey on the rump is complete (a male characteristic), but here it is streaked with brown - it might possibly go more completely grey later in the breeding season with further plumage wear? I think the same might be said of the black head, it also still looks a little streaked with brown, not truly jet-black yet.

This picture suggests that the upper bill may be quite dark, and the lower bill a little lighter - horn-coloured as in BWP. Also a bit of a suggestion of the convex culmen, supposedly seen in the species.

Interesting how the wings are dropped, and the rump exposed - also seen in some other photos on the web! I wonder if this is a sort of display? BWP suggests the song display involves rump and head "fluffing", but this doesn't seem exactly comparable.

The annual survival rate is about 45%. The UK population dropped considerably around 1975 - 83 from an original figure of around 600,000 pairs, allegedly because of harsh winters and has now apparently stabilised at around 400,000. Habitat is normally the tall vegetation generally associated with wetter land. May also be found, on chalk scrub, and perhaps increasingly, in drier farmland, and young conifer plantations. Now, about half the UK population is found in "farmland", as opposed to "wetland" although boundaries are likely to be permeable and indistinct.

Chiefly sedentary in the UK, although some move a little, and there is a bit of movement towards the southwest. The UK gets a few winter visitors, mainly from NW Europe and Scandinavia. In contrast, West Scandinavian birds are almost entirely migratory, to here or countries in Western Europe such as France and Spain, and East Scandinavian birds are entirely migratory, to countries in Southern Europe such as Italy. Autumn movement chiefly mid-September to mid-November, spring mid-February to April.

Mainly feeds on seeds and other plant material, but primarily invertebrates in breeding season. May feed on ground or low or high in vegetation, for example taking grass seed. Can take insects from the air, for example when seen from perch. Will visit garden feeders and farms in winter.

May flock in winter, perhaps with other buntings and finches. Can roost communally to reduce weight loss, for example in warmer, moister reedbeds. Largest flocks on migration. In spring the males may start to visit their prospective breeding territories in the mornings, returning to the flocks after 9 am. Age of first breeding is one year. Generally monogamous, but extra-pair paternity rife. Polygyny may be increasingly common in older male birds. There is no evidence as yet as to any clear genetic benefit from increased immuno-competence (contrary to previous experimentation in Bluethroats) or increased heterozygosity.

Only the females build the nest and incubate, but both sexes feed the nestlings and young. Territory size is very variable. Territories are used for pair formation, maintenance of pair-bond and nesting. The birds collect food from a wider area, seemingly with little conflict with neighbours. Birds may also continue to roost communally until the eggs are laid, when they start to roost on their territories.

Females visit a number of territories, with males responding by stopping singing and approaching her, perhaps with bits of grass, while she avoids them giving "see" calls. She gradually focuses on one territory (and thus one male) in particular. At pair-formation stage, males start to use "fluffed run" in more open spaces as a courtship display, and increasingly attempts to copulate. He accompanies her closely, making increasing approaches, including physical, rejected at first. Once she is esconced however, he spends a lot of time "teaching" her the territory by following her around its boundaries, in effect gradually confining her to it. When female ready to mate, she begins to attack other trespassing females. Then mating starts, continuing until egg-laying. Female adopts soliciting posture, then male flies directly over to female, and either hovers or lands on her back. Female chooses nest site, accompanied by male, and she then builds the nest itself.

Sings much of the summer, but regarded as not very musical. "Tweek, tweek, tweek, tititick" seems to be a common pattern. Repertoire more complex when carefully analysed, complexities tending to be shared between neighbours, and there may be something of a factor of local dialects. Nestlings and young birds have a range of begging calls.

As I parked up, Cetti's Warblers singing welcomed me to the car park. I walked along towards the East Flood, and watched the 210+ Black-tailed Godwits resting up on the bank on the North side of the East Flood, seen from my favourite spot.  With them were 2 Oystercatchers (2 more on the grassy marsh a bit further to the north). Eventually I noticed three Knot, which took me quite a while to recognise - I tried to think of various migrant sandpipers first, as seen on the other side of The Swale the day before. There were two or more Lapwings around, probably more at the peak of high tide.

I think there were about 8 Avocets, several with brownish tinges to their wings.

Just as i walked back to the car park I noticed first one, and then two, birds in a small tree on the West Flood. They seemed to be perhaps a little large to be starlings, but that was still my best bet. Once I focused the telescope however, I realised that they were a small falcon and a Woodpigeon. Surprised to find both birds in the same tree, I saw a peregrine-like dark hood and moustache, a dark back and a heavily streaked underside, with a rich red-brown tinge around the legs. My first Hobby for several years. It took off, and I followed it with the telescope, eventually noting, both through the telescope and by eye, its rapidly flashing scythe-shaped wings, as it flew towards me, over the Flood, and then back towards the seawall to the west.