It's been a busy time at RSPB Otmoor over the past couple of weeks. The tractor has been out most days on the wet grassland fields, rotavating (to create bare muddy areas for the waders to feed on), aerating (to improve soil structure) and topping (for amongst other reasons, to bring the sward height down to a level favoured by nesting waders, to remove large areas of thistle and to encourage tillering of the grass), whilst the volunteer work parties have been working very hard in the reed bed removing small willow trees. An area of reed in front of the first screen has been cleared to give a better view of one of the muddy areas favoured by waders, the new scrape on Greenaways is almost completed and the big task of redesigning Flood field is coming on really well. Dragonflies are still out in abundance and there have been some interesting bird sightings over the past couple of weeks with species seen including; hobby, marsh harrier, greenshank, snipe, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, wheatear, yellow wagtail, whinchat and turtle dove.