Water levels are still about 50cm below target levels for this time of year and because of this wader and wildfowl numbers are still lower then expected.

Greenaways: Mute swan 5, greylag goose 112, canada goose 18, wigeon 4, mallard 10, teal 10, lapwing 4, snipe 1

Reedbed: Mute swan 9, wigeon 29, gadwall 5, teal 106, mallard 18, shoveler 2, tufted duck 1, cormorant 3, lesser black-backed gull

Big Otmoor: Mute swan…

According to the Oxon Bird Log (http://oxonbirding.blogspot.com/) 153 species of bird were seen on Otmoor during 2011, of these I was lucky enough to see 119, not bad at all for an inland site. Highlights included the flock of white-fronted geese early last year feeding on Big Otmoor, the small party of Bewick swans that stayed for one night on Ashgrave, the mandarin I saw lurking  under a tree beside the River Ray, a…

Here are the records from the WEBS count carried out on Monday morning...

Reedbed: 43 mallard, 3 wigeon, 158 teal, 4 cormorant, 4 shoveler, 7 black-headed gulls, 2 mute swans, 1 grey heron

Greenaways: 2 mallard, 25 golden plover, 1 snipe

Big Otmoor: 6 wigeon, 1 snipe, 4 teal, 2 mallard

Ashgrave: 101 greylag geese, 250 lapwing

It was a shame to see that the number of teal and wigeon has gone down since the last WEBS…

The Beast of Otmoor was spotted wandering up the roman road last Tuesday, this shaggy horned creature was then seen lurking in the car park, before slinking off into the mist. I have seen the Beast myself, just once before, huddled in a hedgeline on the MOD land. It’s matted hair and bright yellow eyes suddenly emerging from the thorn as I walked past whilst carrying out an early morning breeding bird survey. Unfortunately…

The number of starlings currently roosting in the Otmoor reedbed is a lot lower than expected with only 2000-3000 currently being seen. This may be because the reedbed is so dry at the moment, allowing foxes and other predators to wander onto the islands, scaring off the birds and putting them off from returning. There is a large starling flock of 10000-15000 birds being seen about 2 miles to the north of the reedbed and…

The results from this months WEBS (WEtland Bird Survey) count are....

Reedbed: 12 black headed gulls, 1 cormorant, 5 mallard, 302 teal, 26 shoveler, 1 snipe, 2 coots, 52 wigeon, 1 grey heron, 51 lapwings, 1 buzzard, 1 kestrel

Big Otmoor: 116 canada geese, 2 greylag geese

Ashgrave: 81 greylag geese, 4 lapwings

Greenaways: 33 greylag geese, 1 snipe, 1 lapwing, 4 mute swans, 6 mallard

Otmoor is still proving to be an amazing area for raptors with short-eared owls being seen everyday (seven reported on 15th Nov) and hen harriers, merlin, peregrine, kestrel, buzzard, sparrowhawk and red kite all being seen over the past couple of days. After the Wednesday work party this week I got amazing views of two of the owls over Closes, one seemed in a particularly bad mood, as it started off attacking the crows…

As well as doing a WEBS (Wetland Bird Survey) count every month, we also do an ‘unofficial’ WEBS count once a month. November's count was carried out on Monday 7th November and the birds recorded were...

Greenaways: 4 mute swan, 16 mallard, 1 grey heron, 1 lesser black back gull, 3 snipe, 3 teal, 1 buzzard

Ashgrave: 8 greylag geese, 1 grey heron

Big Otmoor: 87 canada geese, 99 greylag geese, 25 mallard…

Some good birds have been lurking around on Otmoor recently. Out with the volunteer team on Wednesday (26^th 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 3^rd 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 (26^th Oct) and I got incredible close up…

It seems to be a good time on Otmoor at the moment for raptors. A female merlin is still being seen semi-regularly over Greenaways. Kestrel, buzzard and red kite are almost guaranteed and sparrowhawks are present (I got amazing views of a male yesterday chasing a meadow pipit along a ditch). Short-eared owls are back on the moor with 2 reported from the Pill on the MOD land adjoining the reserve (19^th Oct) a barn owl…

A great grey shrike was on the moor yesterday, not quite on the reserve but only about 50m from the boundary. We rushed down to see it after work and got excellent views as it perched on top of a thorn bush in the south west corner of the Hundred Acres field, which is just to the north of the MOD stop butt. It may well hang around for a while and although the firing range was in use today, hopefully tomorrow (19th Oct)…

I was out this morning doing the WEBS (Wetland Bird Survey) count on the reserve. It’s been so dry recently that there aren’t a huge abundance of wetland birds around, but even so wildfowl numbers are noticeably starting to build. Counts for the areas holding wetland birds were:

Big Otmoor: 96 greylag geese

Reedbed (Southern Phase): 43 mallard, 19 teal, 2 wigeon, 2 mute swans, 1 cormorant, 2 shoveler

Reedbed…

It's that time of year again when we start our hedgerow management, so today the volunteer work part were working on the northern edge of Flood field coppicing a 40m section. The elm trees were left for the benefit of white letter hairstreak butterflies, but the blackthorn, hawthorn and willow were all coppiced. The hedgelines on the reserve are on a 16 year managment cycle designed to keep the hedges thick and healthy…

The Tuesday volunteers were out this week clearing a section of bramble and thorn to open up a new view of the Ashgrave field. This section is halfway along the bridleway between the Wetlands Watch hide and the bridge at the Noke end. It provides a good watch point for one of the areas of the field that holds water all year round, an area that is a good for seeing a range of wildfowl during the winter and which was one…

The scrape on Greenaways has now been finished and a small one has been dug next to the Wetland Watch hide. A third scrape on Big Otmoor is almost complete and so now it's just a matter of time before they fill with water and the waders and wildfowl start making use of them. All three of the scrapes can easily be seen from the public footpaths and so should provide good views.

It sometimes seems you have to work hard…

It's been a busy time at RSPB Otmoor over the past couple of weeks. The tractor has been out most days on the wet grassland fields, rotavating (to create bare muddy areas for the waders to feed on), aerating (to improve soil structure) and topping (for amongst other reasons, to bring the sward height down to a level favoured by nesting waders, to remove large areas of thistle and to encourage tillering of the grass…