Don’t forget it’s the Big Garden Bird Watch this weekend! So make sure you’ve got lots of tasty treats out for the hungry birds to nibble on. As the winter progresses and food starts running out in the wider countryside, birds will become more and more tempted to come and feed in people’s gardens. Have a look at the BGBW website to get ideas of what food garden birds need, get tips on how to identify the birds and maybe even follow the recipe to make some tasty jelly worms to nibble on whilst counting them when they visit your garden! https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/
After two days of hard work we have now finished this winter’s reed cutting on Otmoor. You will be able to see some of the cutting we’ve done if you look right from the furthest reedbed viewing screen. Two large bays and lots of channels have been cut within the reed and water is currently being pumped in from the Greenaways field to raise the reedbed levels. Insects and seed will get washed out of these newly cut areas, fish will be attracted into them and this new food supply will lure in the birds. Water rails have already been seen feeding in this cut area and hopefully the bitterns, ducks and snipe will soon start making use of it too.
Talking of bitterns we were lucky enough to see one flying over the reedbed following our reed cutting on Tuesday, it was heading straight for the fires we had been using during the day so was probably off to warm it's feet before the cold Otmoor night arrived. The moor is literally full of bird life at the moment, there are so many ducks out on the flooded fields, as our recent WeBS count showed. I saw about 50 pintail on Greenaways yesterday and a short-eared owl and hen harrier were in and around the Closes field on Wednesday. The newly labeled 'Bird Restaurant' is being heavily used at the moment with lots of goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, reed buntings and robins making use of it, the lone marsh tit often puts in a fleetingly appearance and a pair of great spotted woodpeckers were feeding on the peanuts yesterday morning.
The amazing Otmoor sunset photo below was taken by Paul Wyeth on a recent visit.