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Joe Harris (RSPB Langford Lowfields Site Manager)
After the success of last year’s event, we are holding two more ‘Otmoor as Darkness Falls’ walks this year. One is happening on 16th August from 20:00-22:00 and the other is on 20th September from 19:00-21:00, see the website for more details http://www.rspb.org.uk/events/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-374778 Not many people come to the reserve during the hours of darkness and so these walks are a great opportunity to (hopefully!) see and hear some of the creatures that prowl and flap around the moor at night.
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(Young hare - Terry Sherlock).
During daylight hours, the reedbed is definitely the place to go to see birds at the moment. The glossy ibis hasn’t been seen there for a while, but a bittern and marsh harrier are being seen on a daily basis. Water rail, green sandpipers, a greenshank and lots of snipe are also likely to put in an appearance. Anyone who is good at separating juvenile from adult snipe can have a go at letting us know how many young ones are out there. According to the BTO bird atlas Otmoor is the only place in Oxfordshire and the surrounding counties where snipe still breed so I’m thinking it’s likely that any juvenile snipe in the reedbed may well have been born on the moor.
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Keep your eyes open on the way up to the first viewing screen for clouded yellow butterflies. These bright orangey yellow butterflies migrate over to the UK from southern Europe, I saw a pair mating frantically a couple of days ago so it looks like we could have another burst of them as the summer progresses. Have a look at the Butterfly Conservation website for more about these special butterflies http://butterfly-conservation.org/50-1229/clouded-yellow.html
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Water levels have been drawn down in the reedbed to give nice muddy bird feeding areas, snipe are feeding around the edges and wading out until they’re belly deep in the water looking for tasty insects, whilst herons are egrets are wading through the deeper areas. Hopefully other wading birds are going to be lured in and as the water evaporates more and more muddy feeding areas will become accessible.
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(Amphibious bistort in the reedbed.)

The volunteer teams have been very busy over the last few weeks, cutting hay in July’s meadow to benefit wildflowers, as well as repairing fences, mending sluices, replacing the roof of one of our pump houses and repairing cattle pens. The Tuesday team will confirm that the latter job has been very very very hard work!