I have neglected to post in here for a few months, but a rainy day, and so no gardening work, is giving me the chance to catch up, going back to early June when I finally managed to get to the Otmoor RSPB reserve near Oxford. And it is indeed a beautiful reserve. I went with my friend Jenny and we were lucky enough to see turtle doves, now increasingly rare visitors to this country. I had never seen or heard them before and hearing their purring was quite a special experience. From time tho time we would hear birds purring as we walked around the reserve, but this bird was the only one we had a good look at whist it was foraging for grain.
There have also been marsh harriers on the reserve and we saw two, but not closely:
It was a very lovely, hot day, with so much bird activity. I did not keep a list, but remember seeing heron, common terns, and hearing many warblers and cuckoos. We also saw many reed buntings. These also live on our local common, although there aren't so many, but here we saw a great deal. Here are some photos: the last one of the tern is not quite in focus but I have included it because of the enormous fish in its beak, which it finally swallowed after much effort!
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