The days shorten, evenings grow cooler and nights longer. This simple, autumnal yardstick is how our wildlife and, particularly, our birds, measure their comings and goings, a timetable to be sensed rather than read and which says: “The journey begins.”

Trees also use this yardstick, telling them when to cut off the sap supply to their leaves, bringing on the blaze of colour that precedes an early multi-coloured blizzard as they flutter down, already doomed for the year, their job done.

We are on Otmoor, the chill early morning air broken by the harsh chatter of a pair of jays collecting acorns to be transported and stored for the winter.

Many trips will be made and, as our Jays flap and flop their way off into the distance, a small flock of high, fast-flying birds head to the growing pools of the meadow scrapes.

Golden plover, resplendent in their winter garb of spangled grey, gold and black and now divested of their black summer waistcoats.

Elegance has given way to mere neatness as the birds move south leaving the high moorland harshness behind.

Other waders are also moving toward warmer climates and both green and wood sandpipers stalk the edges of the scrapes.

Both species are keen to build up their reserves ready for migration, for although some green sandpipers will overwinter here, the wood sandpiper (pictured bottom left), altogether more dainty, will definitely be heading towards Africa.

Stonechats are moving on to the moor, using dead dock stalks as lookout posts, while long tailed tits (pictured bottom right) are gathering in large family parties.

Maybe 20 birds will be restlessly moving and feeding along the hedgerows, for spiders can also migrate short distances and make a welcome and sustaining meal.

Later, as we head back to the car, a large member of the pipit family flies overhead, calling. Although only briefly glimpsed and heard, some call ‘Richards’, while others are unsure with such limited sighting.

And that is how it will be left, a puzzle with a couple of pieces missing — such is the magic of autumn birding.

Keith Clack Oxford Ornithological Society