Another sunny afternoon on Otmoor. A friend of mine who's lived in the area for over 30 years and never been to Otmoor, suggested we had a trip out there.
This was all due to a presentation by Peter Barker at our local U3A featuring 'The Birds of Otmoor', a very informative booklet written by Peter and published by Oxford Ornithological Society.
We started at the bird feeders as usual, heading alongside Greenaways before dropping off at Wetlands Watch to capture - on camera that is - the birds taking advantage of the winter feeding programme.
Just the usual 'suspects' on the bird feeders so on to Greenaways.
And here's where my lack of expertise begins to show itself.
I captured greylag geese in flight, a resting butterfly, a male mallard enjoying the water and I'm not sure about the bird. I'll have to transfer the image to my phone and ask the 'photos' app to identify it for me.
We'd also seen a red kite but that's for my next post.
On to Wetlands Watch.
Lots of birds taking advantage of the free seed on offer - female reed bunting, goldfinch, robin, chaffinch, dunnock, another chaffinch among others, Oh - and a grey heron in the distance.
Then a quick look at screen one - photos later - before checking out screen two.
Swans and Egyptian geese enjoying the sunshine as an egret flew overhead.
Then back to screen one, and a spot of lunch with a hot drink.
There were also marsh harriers 'marshing' around and a shoveller duck preening. They're in my next post too.
Time to go. A quick look at the bird feeders on the way back.