Brent geese are a common bird at many coastal sites at this time of year but one turning up at Otmoor is a rare occurrence. So getting a call from Paul Greenaway, one of our local birders, reporting a Brent goose in the reedbed was exciting news (16th Feb). The goose was associating with a small flock of Canada geese in front of the first reedbed viewing screen before flying over to graze on the Greenaways field. This is perhaps only the third sighting of a Brent on Otmoor since the creation of the RSPB reserve. A few photos were taken with the one shown below coming from one of our volunteer wardens Nigel Woodley.
The short-eared owls are still regularly hunting and roosting on the reserve and I had very close views of two sitting on the cattle pen at the bottom of the diagonal track cutting across Greenaways (16th Feb). They seemed to spend as much time fighting each other making strange owly noises as they did hunting along the edges of the ditches. The brash piles that have been put in the cattle pen area are working really well as cover for small birds as the dart backwards and forwards feeding on seed spread on the ground. Five yellowhammers, joined a large group of dunnocks, reed buntings and chaffinches as I watched the owls. At least one marsh tit regularly feeds in this area too.
Winter wildfowl and wader numbers are still low due to the low water levels but with the ice having melted, teal, wigeon, shoveler, lapwing and golden plover are all present. I saw an impressive flock of c.500 lapwing recently (16th Feb) and a dunlin has been feeding in front of the hide.
The volunteer work parties have almost made it to the end of the thorn coppicing season now and are relatively unscathed. The Aussie gates on Greenaways have been repaired ready for the return of the cattle. Gauge boards have finally been fitted onto the new sluices on the Flood and Barn fields and anti-slip netting has been put on the steps to the bird feeder and leading to the first reedbed viewing screen.