The bird feeding area on Otmoor is always very popular, not only with birds but also with people, allowing them to get nice close views of the tits, finches and buntings. The old feeling station was starting to look tatty so we decided it was time for a change. The Wednesday volunteer team we tasked with the job of constructing the new feeding station and I’m sure everyone will be really pleased with the results. Although it’s nothing that complicated (an elm tree wedged into a plastic pipe in the ground) it certainly looks a lot better and more natural than the old rickety metal contraption. The tree can easily be replaced if necessary and with a new improved niger seed feeder on the way, hopefully the feeders will be a hive of activity over the winter.
Although there don’t seem to be many sloes year, there are loads of haws, blackberries and rosehips along the Otmoor hedgerows, these will provide plenty of food for the large numbers of fieldfare and redwing moving around the reserve.
The bramblings are still feeding around the Greenaways cattle pen area (and hopefully under the new feeding station), a bittern was seen from the first screen again today and loads of wigeon and snipe came up off the Ashgrave lagoon when a military helicopter flew low overhead.