I fancied a winter's walk at RSPB Otmoor so got up earlier than usual on a Saturday morning only to find a blanket of fog. Checking the met office forecast it showed sun in Oxfordshire while at home in North Wiltshire it was still foggy. Not knowing the accuracy of this, I thought it might be a good idea to check out an Oxford webcam, which I did, and incredibly it showed clearing skies.
So having made sandwiches and a flask of hot chocolate I headed out along the A420..still foggy. But after about 20 minutes or so the round shape of the sun could be seen through the fog and soon it cleared completely. On arrival at Otmoor, the hedges were a beautiful picture of white sparkling leaves and in the distance the moor looked stunning in its winter beauty.
With everything still pretty frozen, there were not that many birds currently about, so I took the opportunity to try out some winter photography. However at the hide the winter feeding scheme ensured that there were good numbers of reed buntings, chaffinches, and a few yellow hammers along with great tits and robin.
At the junction of the path to the first screen, there were a group of birders standing around at the junction with the track who had just been watching a weasel. And as I followed the path I caught up with another couple of birders who were also watching one, which I could see in the distance. I did actually have another two weasel sightings, the second one particularly close but although I waited with camera poised, sadly it did not reappear.
At the first screen, I joined a few others who were watching a group of snipe on an island and flocks of teal wheeling round above the water but not landing. Here bitterns have been seen regularly and not so long ago a family of otters had been frequenting the area. But neither showed during my visit today.
Birds seen:
coot, moorhen, swan, mallard, tufted duck, teal, snipe, Canada geese, redwing, great tit, pheasant, chaffinch, great tit, reed bunting, yellowhammer, buzzard, linnet, cormorant.
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