They say to understand someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. Well having rushed out of the house and jumped into Kevin Heath's (@kev07713) car yesterday morning, I forgot to collect my walking boots from the boot of my car. It wasn't until we were halfway to RSPB Otmoor that this dawned on me - fortunately Kev had a spare pair of walking shoes in the boot of his car, and I borrowed them to avoid trashing the pair I was wearing. To be honest, having walked several miles in his shoes I am none the wiser 😂 - they were very comfortable though!
Today we had Dave South (@davidso55441100) along with us but we would need to watch the time as we were all on the clock - family Christmas events to deal with from late lunchtime. We set out from the car park at 10.40am and didn't see much between there and the bridleway stopping at the gate to the cattle pens to scan across Greenaways. As we did, Michael Enticott and Peter Barker passed and stopped for a chat - they reported that the reserve was generally quiet although a couple of peregrine and the marsh harriers had been active, plus a kingfisher was showing well at 1st Screen. Peter also said he'd scattered some seed outside the hide and numbers of yellowhammers, linnet and redd bunting were enjoying it - they'd had a single brambling a few days earlier and you just never know ... We didn't pick anything up over Greenaways other than a kestrel, a large flock of wigeon, some geese, and a very distant marsh harrier.
Walking along the bridleway we met Adrian Tysoe coming the other way - Adrian is one of our friends from the Banbury Ornithological Society and a Volunteer here at RSPB Otmoor. We stopped again and chatted as it has been a while since we've all been together but eventually we went our separate ways. We made for the gate overlooking Big Otmoor and from here we could see flocks of golden plover and lapwing in the sky but no raptors around them - there wasn't much else on the ground. A couple came out from the path to the hide and asked if we were looking for the merlin - apparently a birder there had seen one for just a moment but was sure that was what he'd seen. It hadn't come across Big Otmoor so we were none the wiser.
We scanned again then opted to make our way down the track to 1st Screen - perhaps we might visit the hide on the way back. There were a handful of people at the Screen but little on the water - one of the residents remarked it was busier in the hide that on the water. We could see a redwing feeding on the edge of the reeds to our left and a few snipe and lapwing resting on the island, in the low cut reeds. We could still see lapwing and golden plover in the air, spooked by an invisible predator, various duck species, and passing red kites and marsh harriers. A kestrel hunted over Big Otmoor behind us. It wasn't long until some marsh harriers got close enough to take some photos, one stalling nicely just as I pulled away - both female and males quartered the reedbeds, the closest passes to our right.
I turned to Dave and asked if he'd managed to get any good shots, but his camera had stopped as the harrier got close and was displaying an error message about his storage cards. It took a few minutes, but he got the camera working again - worrying for him though as apparently it had happened a couple of weeks ago. A kingfisher then passed under ten metres in front of the screen, landing partly down the channel to our left, but out of view. A couple of minutes later it flew across and into view, dropping to catch a small fish which it downed quickly. Despite being c.30m from us I took a record shot - the colours were even more vibrant given the grey and damp conditions. Snipe left the scrun and flew to the far end of the cleared island – more numbers than we’d appreciated.
A marsh harrier made another close pass and while distracted the kingfisher made its escape, unseen and stage left. Some people would later arrive from 2nd Screen and report a kingfisher sighting from there - the same one?
We turned around to find that Kevin had disappeared, presumably heading along the track towards 2nd Screen - we were still hoping that Dave might get another opportunity for a close harrier pass and decided to stay put for a while longer. In 5 minutes or so I was scanning the reeds and following a harrier when I spotted a fast moving raptor - I locked on with my new bins and could clearly see it was a merlin ... I shouted out to draw everyone's attention and fortunately quick enough for everyone to spin round and get on the bird. I snapped off some record shots - that is very much what they are. Great to see through the bins though.
One of the birders suggested that the merlin may have landed in a tree and scopes were turned to have a look but all too soon it dropped from view. I called Kev to see where he was and if he was on the bird but sadly it was not visible from where he was. We decided that it was time to go and meet up with Kev and see what was of interest where the merlin was headed. We joined up and found that the next field was full of golden plover with a few lapwings ... perhaps the merlin's intended quarry? Kev scanned the GPs but couldn't find anything amongst them - they were very skittish and would take to the wing if we made much movement. We checked the time and decided that we should start our way back to the car - we might stop on the way back and then there was the journey home.
Flocks of greylag geese continued to pass, and one flock contained what appeared to be a white individual - I took a photo just in case. It appears to be just a leucistic greylag ... well you just never know. We hoped for a bittern on the return but had to make do with four roe deer and a calling water rail.
It had been a rewarding visit, even though it was under three hours. Roll on Thursday when we hope to get out again and this time not on the clock.
Year List: 232
BirdTrack Record: https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB46335023
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