Sunday 17 April 2022

RSPB Otmoor :: 15 April 2022

We arrived at RSPB Otmoor having discussed that it may likely be the quietest day of the Easter weekend - two of the parking bays were already occupied by the time we pulled in at 6.15am. Along the path to the bridleway we could hear two grasshopper warblers calling but, try as we might, we couldn't see them despite one in particular sounding close. On we pushed to the feeder area where we could again hear another two grasshopper warblers, one of them again sounding close to our right - we pressed up against the fence and scanned for a few minutes until I picked out the light chest of a bird buried in a bush. I took a few photos which we largely out of focus as there were so many twigs in the way - at last one caught the bird, and we could confirm this was our first actual sighting of the year. Not a great photo but any of a grasshopper warbler is a bonus.

Grasshopper warbler

We reached the bridleway and had several encounters with Cetii's warblers, but I just couldn't get on them or when I did I was on the wrong side for the sun. Great to see so many. We reached the bittern bench and a chap we'd chatted to briefly earlier alerted us to a bittern on the edge of the reeds. We spent the next 15-20 minutes watching the bird - it largely crouched low but occasionally stood tall and proud. Kev set up his scope and views from there we excellent. I took a few photos but from 60m plus (and with the haze) it proved not to be easy. A cuckoo called on the opposite side of Greenaways but we didn't get any views here or at the car park end where they were reported later.

Bittern
Bittern
Bittern
Bittern
Bittern

At distance you can get some quite good results by digiscoping with a quality scope and phone camera, even compared with a photos cropped from a camera and lens - a case in point is this excellent capture that Kevin Heath made while we were viewing the bittern. I wasn't jealous ...

Bittern
Copyright and courtesy of Kevin Heath

Shortly after we'd moved on, we were joined by Adrian Sparrowhawk. We then stopped and chatted with Mark Chivers who was camped out trying to photograph a sedge warbler on a particular perch - made more difficult by the number of passing birders, us included. A Cetti's warbler called again, and I went off in pursuit as it was still in view. I couldn't catch it in the open, but I still like the images in any case.

Cetti's warbler
Cetti's warbler

We passed the path to 1st Screen and pushed on to see if there were any unusual species along the bridleway - we added redshank, oystercatchers, barnacle goose and yet more Cetti's warblers. Female and male marsh harriers cruised over attracting the attention of, and being mobbed by, the lapwings.

Cetti's warbler
Marsh harrier

We returned to the gate and made our way down to 1st screen and saw a rather attractive speckled wood butterfly enroute - at the screen Adrian and I talked about camera settings as we both have Nikon and he is trying to get to grips with his for wildlife photography - still too inconsistent a hit rate for his liking. We got some quite nice shots of the ducks and wildfowl having made some changes (shoveler, coot chasing one another, pochard, etc). We didn't see anything of note, frustrated when a bittern boomed from the reeds but failed to show, we headed back to the bridleway. On the way out of the hide we stopped to watch the common lizards and a dark-edged bee-fly working around the perimeter of the fenced-off area.

Speckled wood butterfly
Common lizard
Dark-edged bee-fly

Along the path we stopped to listen to two water rails squealing in the hedge - they couldn't have been much more than 10 feet from us, but we just couldn't see any movement that might give them away – so we failed to add them to our day list.

We'd talked to others and they'd mentioned that they'd seen some grass snakes basking in the reeds alongside the bridleway - we searched and after a few minutes I found one and called Kev to come back - by the time he arrived it had unfortunately slithered off. I felt he was a bit disappointed and so spent another couple of minutes looking for another, which I did. Now with my eye in I spotted some more.

Grass snake
Grass snake

Our final spot of the day was a couple of reed warblers, new to us all for the year. It had been quite a morning but passed time when I should get home. We didn't stop to see if we could locate a cuckoo or a redstart in Long Meadow - another day.

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