Birds of Little Wittenham Nature Reserve
Blackcap (female)

Species and Habitats

The general state of the reserve is good for birds, having a wide variety of available habitats.

• Coppice and scrub accomodate visiting summer migrants ( blackcap,garden warbler, whitethroat, chiffchaff and willow warbler) as well as resident birds (robin,wren, blackbird and dunnock).
• Mature woodland, containing mainly oak and ash, supplies food and nesting sites for most of the tit species, nuthatch,treecreeper, chaffinch, great spotted woodpecker, tawny owl, buzzard,jay and wood pigeon.
• Hedges and areas throughout the wood consisting of hawthorn, blackthorn, elder, beech and hazel provide nesting sites for yellowhammer, whitethroat and linnet. In winter they are a vital food source for visiting birds such as fieldfare, redwing and continental populations of blackbirds and song thrush which come to join the residents.
The conifer blocks are breeding and feeding sites for our smallest bird, the goldcrest ( which has a very healthy population) and in 2001 firecrest, a new breeding species. Coal tits also use this area as do the sparrowhawk, goshawk and red kite for roosting and breeding.
• The open grassland areas in and around the wood hold at least 5 breeding pairs of green woodpeckers.
• Our new wetland area beside the Thames will, it is hoped, provide breeding sites for reed and sedge warblers. Wagtails ( various), kingfishers , several species of duck and grebe are regularly seen. Waders, such as common and green sandpipers, are already turning up in small numbers.
• Finally the Clumps, Round Hill and Castle Hill have large breeding colonies of jackdaw and rook. Crow and magpie breed in small numbers throughout the reserve.

Kingfisher

Surveys and Ringing

The foundation of the present bird studies in the reserve was laid by Wilf Corris in 1982, when he was asked by the Trust to do a survey. From then until his untimely death in 1997 he worked tirelessly to build up an orderly body of data about the birds of the reserve and their dependence on its habitat management.

He also collected all the ringing data into computerised form, which the present team have continued to do under the auspices of the British Trust for Ornithology(BTO); all the information since 1984 is now stored on the BTO's computers and regular updates are sent during the year. Some of the historic data has already been used in the Blackbird survey.

Mike Rogers began as Wilf's assistant in 1983, and is now the advisor for bird matters to the Trust, and helps with their Winter Farmland and special Common Bird Census surveys on the farm - the woodland CBC was discontinued in 2000 by the BTO. He also organises all the ringing and trains new ringers.

A BBC Radio Oxford interviewer recently came to see Mike - click here to see this.

Ringing is carried out in the summer in the woodland and in the winter at Little Wittenham Manor, which shares the same resident bird population.

Since 2000 the nationwide BTO Constant Effort Survey (CES) has been done in the wood by the ponds. This survey, one of only two in Oxfordshire, consists of 12 regularly-spaced visits from April to August, and has already produced some interesting results.

Marsh tit)	Firecrest (left) and goldcrest)

A very large population of blackcaps (see top picture) use the wood for breeding and many more pass through on migration. Marsh tits are breeding in fair numbers, although declining in line with the national trend. They are surprisingly long-lived for small birds; one ringed 8 years ago was recaptured this summer.In 2001 also the first willow tit was ringed in the wood since 1990. This is another species in decline, possibly due to lack of suitable habitat. In 2001 a juvenile firecrest was ringed when just out of the nest,(shown with a young goldcrest caught at the same time)proving breeding in the wood for the first time since ringing records began in 1983;

Nest boxes

120 nest boxes are sited throughout the quieter areas of the wood, and attract mostly blue and great tits but occasionally nuthatch, treecreeper, coal tit and for the first time in 2003 marsh tit. All the nestbox fledglings are ringed if possible. Nuthatches were absent from the wood altogether until the nest boxes were erected; now we have a thriving population and not all of them breeding in boxes. Bats are using the boxes in autumn for roosting. Since Autumn 2001 the wooden nest boxes have been gradually replaced with woodcrete ones which are completely waterproof and offer better insulation.

nuthatch

Passage migrants

In autumn and spring the reserve provides food and shelter in passing for some or all of siskin, brambling, redpoll, wheatear, whinchat and more rarely Cetti's warbler and wood warbler. There are sometimes surprises as migrants pass through; in 2002 we caught our first ever pied flycatcher (left).

Pied flycatcher)

and in 2003 the first ever grasshopper warbler and spotted flycatcher.

 

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This page last updated February 9th, 2006 by E M Gill