An amazing day for birds... And the Essex lion is spotted on Otmoor!!

Every now and then I have a proper 'RSPB moment' when I'm down on the reserve. Today was one of those days... As I reached the metal gates leading out onto Greenaways I saw a raptor in the distance being pursued by two crows, catching a flash of white on its rump I zoomed up the bridleway to try and get a better view. Everything was quiet and I thought I'd missed it until 20 snipe suddenly flew over and then a female hen harrier flew into sight, low and fast across Ashgrave. Amazing. I was well chuffed with the sighting and headed on up the bridleway to get on with my work. 50 snipe then flew over and big flocks of fieldfare were roving around. After checking the water levels in the fields I headed up to the reedbed. Looking out from the viewing screen the first bird I saw was a water rail feeding on the reed edge and soon after a peregrine came in fast from the east. It was whilst watching the peregrine that a bittern popped up briefly from the shallow area to the right of the viewing screen. I couldn't believe it. A curlew flew over when I got to the second screen and a big flock of golden plover and lapwing came up off the MOD and as I returned to the office. To cap off an amazing day I got some great views of a black redstart perched on a farm roof, the first I'd seen in Oxfordshire (photo taken by Terry Sherlock).

In August this year a blurry picture emerged of a lion which had allegedly been seen in Essex. This morning I managed to secure an exclusive photo of another lion, this time on the Otmoor reserve. The ferocious beast yawned and stretched before sauntering off making a deafening roar. As well as the lion you can also see in the photo one of the new gates that has been installed, the volunteers have been hard at work recently erecting these gates which are going to allow access to a seasonal path passing through the Carpark field.

The Closes field is wetting up nicely and from the viewing area that's been cut in the hedge, I could see that a good number of wildfowl were already making use of the wet areas. Hopefully as the winter progresses and with a cold snap on the way more and more ducks and geese will arrive on the moor.