First visit to Otmoor

Finally me and my family visited Otmoor to see the Starlings do their murmuration.

I didn't know what to expect of Otmoor because this was my first time going.

As soon as I stepped out, I knew that this place was full of wildlife because the air was full of different types of birds calling. 

We headed down towards the hides but stoped half way to watch the birds on the birdfeeders, there were Goldfinches, Chaffinch, Blue tits, Great tits as well as a Robin

Just before the first hide a small rodent started to squeak in the reedbed.

As we came into the hide a large group of about 20 Lapwings came down to the side of wetland as well as many different types of ducks.

After leaving the hide many waves of about 150 starlings flew straight over our heads followed by  little groups of about 10 flying behind. We decided to follow where they were going.

Upon reaching the hide overlooking the reedbeds, I grabbed a seat. Shortly afterwards the Starlings did a mini murmuration that I caught on a short video. 

After the Starlings had settled down and were just flapping about, lots of other wildlife came out such as a Kingfisher, Muntjac and a Heron.

On the way back to the car, it was getting quite dark, a brown owl flew out right in front of us and then went behind the trees before I could get my cameras out to take a photo.  

Bats were flying around the trees and many owls could be heard.

I really enjoyed visiting Otmoor, even through the Starlings didn't do a great murmuration, they settled quite quickly. Everybody we meet in the hides and along the paths were very friendly and there was a great deal to look at.

I can't wait to go back again.

(Sorry about the talking there was a family behind me)

Walk around Thrupp Lake, Radley

I had a lovely walk around Thrupp lake. Radley with my friend Ben, and Jo Cartmell over the weekend
During the walk I took over a hundred photos of different birds, scenes and and other wildife.
The weather was warm with gusts of wind, the sun light tried it's hardest to peek through but only managed it a few times.
On the lake there was plenty of wildlife including Egyptian geese, a Shoverler duck, Mallard ducks, coots, swans and cormorants.

Water Lily

Eygptian goose and Cormorant.

Male Shoveler duck

Eygptian geese

Through some wire was a herd of Fallow deer.

We spent a while trying to work out who had made this hole, we decided on a rabbit in the end.

Black headed gull - winter plumage

Mallards

Swan at Thrupp Lake, Radley

This swan hung about at the side of the lake. 

I was trying to get a photo of the water dripping from it's beak

Mystery of the dead rats

The other morning we found two dead rats, one had a cut to it's neck, while the other had a cut on it's back.

I put it on twitter and some tweets came back with the suggestions of a Fox, a Cat or Samurai pygmy shrew!

 I decided to put the trail camera out to see if we could find out what might have killed them.

What the camera showed up was a black shadow in the bottom left corner



 A badger

And the milk man

Don't tell my sister but this badger is underneath her bedroom window. It's very exciting to think that the badgers potter around outside our house at night.

Dragonflies

Came across this dragonfly while out walking this morning.

The weather was warm but in the wind you couldn't feel the heat.

Due to the rain over the last couple of days the river's water level was rather high.

This Drangonfly was not bothered by us when we sat down to watch it whizz around.

It decided to land on mum's hand whist she was trying to take a photo of it.

We also took some videos of the drangonfly hovering. 

Autumn

The weather has definitely changed this week and it feels much more like Autumn.

The fields have been ploughed, the bushes have berries on them, there are cobwebs full of dew everywhere and the birds are hanging around in flocks.

Here are a few photos from round my local patch that sum up Autumn.

Starlings

Badgers and Kestrel

On Monday I went to see Patrick Barkham at the Natural History Museum in Oxford. He was speaking about his book 'Badgerlands'.
It was interesting to listen to him talk about all the different people he met, who spend time watching or studying badgers.
Patrick Barkham spent time in Wytham woods, in Oxfordshire, where they study badgers and also in Cornwall with a lady who feeds badgers from her back door.
There were plenty of cute photos of baby badgers from Secret World.

After the talk I decided that since going back to school I haven't seen much of my local badgrs, so I left the trail camera out over night.

This Kestrel has been next to my house for a couple of weeks. When it rains it sits on one of the fence posts and as soon as the sun comes out it begins hunting again.