END OF YEAR AT STANTON PARK

I paid my final visit of the year to Stanton Park, where someone had helpfully scattered bird seed around the park, enticing some of the regular species/

coal tit

grey heron

marsh tit

nuthatch

robin

A FEW PHOTOS FROM SLIMBRIDGE 20 DEC

view over tack piece

pintail

Bewicks

common and jack snipe

shelduck and pintail

view from hide

A MORNING STAR AND AN AFTERNOON AT OTMOOR

This was the view from my bedroom window when I opened the curtains yesterday... a crescent moon and a bright star close to it as the sun began to rise. As it happened, the bright star turned out to be the planet Venus, shining brightly due to its closeness to earth, but I didn't find that out until the evening! 

Having had a bright, frosty morning, I headed over to RSPB's Otrmoor reserve straight from work, arriving at 1 pm.  The car park only held a few vehicles and I hardly saw anyone as I walked down the track and along the bridleway to the Wetland hide. As this blog shows, I hadn't been out and about for a while due to some inclement weather and even now  the sun was hastily disappearing behind the gathering clouds and  at 2 oclock it seemed as if dusk wasn't far off. 

Along the track the bird feeders were attracting plenty of tits and finches whilst a couple of grey squirrels were foraging for spillages underneath. Flocks of fieldfares with a few redwings could also be seen in the trees that edged the bridleway. 

From the wetland hide, reed buntings, and goldfinches were regularly seen and from the first screen were the expected wildfowl; gadwall, teal, mallards, shovelers etc. 

The main attraction at this time of the year is the 80,000 starlings that form regular murmurations over the reed beds, but with nearly a mile to walk from the carpark, and the possibility of being caught in rush hour traffic around Oxford I opted to leave earlier. Returning to the car, starlings were gathering on the overhead wires, as if waiting for a signal that their show was about to start!

redwing

female reed bunting

male reed bunting

gathering starlings ( and clouds!)