SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF OTMOOR

I abandoned my usual Saturday lie-in today in favour of a morning at Otmoor RSPB reserve where it was a beautiful spring morning, with birdsong all around. On arriving at the almost full car park at 8.30 a.m. a blackcap was singing,  a grasshopper warbler reeling and a cuckoo calling. With the blackthorn blossom in full bloom it really looked and felt like spring. 

Along the track and bridleway I had my first sightings this year of sedge and reed warblers; (I'm beginning to differentiate between their songs now!) and later one of two cuckoos seen, perched up in a tall tree giving nice views. As I walked towards the first screen I was shown a whimbrel, distant in a field of mainly greylags and lapwing but another tick for the year.  A snipe was drumming overhead.

Brimstones and orange tips were all around, but hardly ever stopping. 

cuckoo

reed warbler

orange tip