A slightly different view of the reserve... This photo is taken looking towards the hide from the West side of the huge Ashgrave field. It clearly shows the large 'secret' lagoon on the hill, which you can just about glimpse from the hide and which you can get views of from the path that goes around the outside of Ashgrave.
The muddy edges of the lagoon are providing lots of feeding oppurtunities and the greenshank that's lurking on the lagoon has been now been joined by a ruff. At least 10 swifts were feeding overhead yesterday (my first for the year) and a couple of shelduck were loafing around. A lot of redshank and lapwing are also feeding on insects around the edges of the Ashgrave lagoon, so after some patient watching it was good to find a couple of lapwing nests not too far away, which can become part of this years monitoring project. With the recent BTO bird atlas showing further contraction of the breeding range of lapwing, it's important that we monitor core populations like those on Otmoor to ensure we are doing all we can to help these distinctive birds.