Spring is always one of our busiest times on Otmoor, on top of the usual reserve and habitat management work we also carry out bird surveys over the whole of the moor and put a lot of effort into monitoring the ground nesting wading birds (lapwing, snipe, curlew and redshank).

Our surveys cover not only the RSPB reserve area but also the MOD land and a number of fields owned by private land owners. These surveys allow us to build up a really good picture of how breeding bird populations (wildfowl, wading birds and passerines) are changing year-to-year. Healthy bird populations mean there are good habitats on the moor, lots of suitable food and that the land management is appropriate. Starting the surveys at sunrise can sometimes be a bit of a struggle but it’s often the best time of day for seeing and more importantly hearing the birds. A lot of the survey work is based on hearing territorial birds singing and so we need to make sure we can identify and distinguish the songs of the species found on the moor, when you’re wide awake this isn’t too tricky but after drowsily staggering round a wet field for a couple of hours at the crack of dawn, it can make things a little bit more of a challenge.

We often find interesting species on the surveys and it’s normally when we get our first sightings of the spring migrants returning from warmer climes. I didn’t have anything too out of the ordinary today but a wheatear, ringed-plover, fly over raven, a few lesser whitethroats, tree creeper and some bullfinches spiced up the morning.

Lots of butterflies are fluttering around the reserve at the moment, the toads are still croaking away in the ditches and if you’re lucky you might see a grass snake basking in the sunshine or hunting in the water. Birds of note that have been seen over the last few days include; whimbrel, turtle dove, garganey, marsh harrier and hobbies (I saw 7 yesterday over the reedbed).

The pictures below were all taken by local birder Peter Coombes and show some of the spring sights on Otmoor...

1.) Pile of amorous toads     2.) Peacock butterfly     3.) Lesser whitethroat feeding amongst black thorn flowers