RSPB Otmoor. a Reserve to the North of Oxford that someone had listed on twitter had 8 Short Eared Owls a few days before... Well, that was enough for me - and a Road Trip was quickly arranged with Tm for a Sunday afternoon stroll... Would we be lucky?
Otmoor is big! and with just one raised path through the middle of a massive amount of fields we were confident that we'd see one if they were there.
Close the the car park is a load of Bird Feeders and this Great Spot was helping itself to peanuts from one of the feeders.
Towards the middle of the Reserve we stopped at one of the Screened area.. A viewing point to look over the reedbed and water..
A few people were there, we asked if they had seen anything of note?? A Peregrine in a nearby tree was pointed out, but nothing else... then an SEO flew over... Very high.. But no mistaking it..
Sadly that was the only one we saw.. We walked up further, had a quick look in a very posh hide, nicer than any house I'd ever lived in.. but apart from some Greylags and a funny hybrid goose, not much else.
From the Screens we saw a fair few Canada Geese, acting like Sheep.
It was now around 4pm, the sun was setting, a few Fieldfare were flying around the bushes..
The Starling murmeration will be spectacular there if they all joined forces, but as it was, they dropped in, a few thousand at a time - there must have been at least 20k there in total, but all in 'small' groups.
A few 'mood' shots on the long walk back to the car, including the bottom one that I sent to Meridian Tonight for them to show on their Weather slot - which they kindly did.. :o)
As for the SEO's... Otmoor is definitely unfinished business.
