Some good birds have been lurking around on Otmoor recently. Out with the volunteer team on Wednesday (26th Oct) we were treated to a short-eared owl flying low over our heads as soon as we stepped out the landrover. It turned out that was the 3rd that had been seen over Greenaways that morning. The owls seem to be making good use of the reserve as 2 were seen on the Barn field (26th Oct) and I got incredible close up views of one sitting on a fence post in Flood field (27th Oct). A late wheatear was seen last week, a great grey shrike was spotted alongside the bridleway (28th Oct) and on the 30th Oct a peregrine, hen harrier, green sandpiper, water rail and 20 golden plover were reported. The starling roast is starting to build up and although currently only a few hundred are flying into the reedbed at dusk, as the year progresses so numbers will hopefully build up.