Otmoor Days

A healthy walk from Headington is the Otmoor reserve, which the RSPB has been rehabilitating over the last twenty years.

The reserve is dominated by a series of ponds and lagoons, so waterbirds are a big feature.

Lapwings have been displaying:

Only one of these redshanks was in the mood, though:

Coots are more advanced, though their chicks still look like dinosaurs:

One of the lagoons is equipped with an island and artificial nesting sites for some lucky common terns:

In the reedbeds and hedgerows adjoining the water, there are plenty of warblers:

Up above there are swarms of hobbies, which catch dragonflies in their claws and eat them on the wing:

I’m not sure if the buzzards were making love or war:

Otmoor has one of the 350-odd breeding pairs of marsh harriers:

And of course, it wouldn’t be Oxfordshire without these beady eyes:

Watch out!