Oxfordshire birding (1 Viewer)

[AndyK]

Hi everyone I'm planning a quick trip to Otmoor tomorrow whilst I'm on my travels, does anyone know what time the reserve is open til and if there is any charge for parking just need to be prepared with change if so! Looking forward to it hopefully the rain will hold off!

 

[Julian Mole]

Hi Andy,

The car park is free and the reserve is open pretty much 24/7, so no closing time. I would recommend getting good detailed directions for finding the reserve once in the village of Beckley, as it can be quite tricky to find if you haven't been there before - also take care on the single track road to the reserve as there are sometimes some killer potholes!

Hope you get good weather for your visit, although it looks like it might be a bit windy tomorrow with some showers (according to local forecast).

All the best,

Julian.

 

[AndyK]

Hi Andy,

The car park is free and the reserve is open pretty much 24/7, so no closing time. I would recommend getting good detailed directions for finding the reserve once in the village of Beckley, as it can be quite tricky to find if you haven't been there before - also take care on the single track road to the reserve as there are sometimes some killer potholes!

Hope you get good weather for your visit, although it looks like it might be a bit windy tomorrow with some showers (according to local forecast).

All the best,

Julian.

Hi Julian thanks for your helpful response! Will look out for potholes! I have sat nav so I'm hoping finding it wont be too bad. Fingers crossed for the weather!

 

[Musoman]

Opening and closing according to the RSPB is dawn till dusk.

You might be cutting fine if you go too late

 

[AndyK]

Had an absolutely amazing day today will post my list and some pics when I'm home tomorrow. Lots of firsts for me, superb place.

 

[Musoman]

I've spent 6 hours at a time in that new hide ( not so new now ) ... excellent, as you say. Caught some beautiful Shovelers from there, + Curlew and Redshank

 

[Mari E]

Andy I'm glad you had a fab time:t:

I keep on trying to convince my parents to take me to Otmoor but at the moment I'm failing, and I have exams :eek!:

 

[AndyK]

sorry it took so long, haven't had internet access but here are some of my favourite pics from the day. Get over there if you can, superb place hope i'll be around oxford at some point in the future so I can go again!

Here's my list:

Great tit
Blue tit
Chiffchaff
long tailed tit
Sedge Warbler
Swift
Hobby
Little Egret (4)
Redshank (3)
Lapwing
Coot
Kestrel
Red Kite
Heron
Little Grebe
Wigeon
Mute Swan
Reed Bunting
Linnet
Chaffinch
Yellowhammer (3)

 

[John Richards]

Anybody know what's happened to the excellent Farmoor-Birding website? I regularly make business trips to Oxford and found the information on there really informative and helpful.......but it seems to have disappeared......

 

[Musoman]

Nic who used to run it has given up - thats the word i got from Adam at the Oxon Birding Blog when I enquired

http://oxonbirding.blogspot.com/

 

[gnome]

Nic who used to run it has given up - thats the word i got from Adam at the Oxon Birding Blog when I enquired

http://oxonbirding.blogspot.com/

I think that Nic is rather pre-occupied with other stuff at present and for that reason has decided to shut down the Farmoor blog. You can still follow Farmoor sightings on the Oxon Bird Log though admittedly it was nice to have everything there in one place. I am hoping that Dai John takes up the mantle as he is still visiting Farmoor regularly.

Adam

 

[gareth_blockley]

There's not been many posts from me of bird sightings of late. It's far easier to guide people to the Oxon going birding site and the Oxon bird log. Excellent sites but only if people choose to use them!


For anyone browsing this looking for a course to get started or even improve basic id skills and learn more about recording your sightings there is a course coming up next year at Oxford uni. It's part time, starting Tues 17th April for 10 weeks. It looks like a good course.


http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/details.php?id=C100-14&AllCourses=yes


Gareth

 

[John Richards]

I think that Nic is rather pre-occupied with other stuff at present and for that reason has decided to shut down the Farmoor blog. You can still follow Farmoor sightings on the Oxon Bird Log though admittedly it was nice to have everything there in one place. I am hoping that Dai John takes up the mantle as he is still visiting Farmoor regularly.

Adam

Thanks for the reply. A great shame, it was one of the better birding websites.

On another note do you know were I can lay my hands on the last few years Oxon Annual Bird Reports, mainly interested in 2006, 2007, 2008.
Thanks

 

[gareth_blockley]

Thanks for the reply. A great shame, it was one of the better birding websites.

On another note do you know were I can lay my hands on the last few years Oxon Annual Bird Reports, mainly interested in 2006, 2007, 2008.
Thanks

You can purchase them directly from the OOS http://www.oos.org.uk/report.php. Even though it states the 2005 report is now available later years are too.

Gareth

 

[John Richards]

You can purchase them directly from the OOS http://www.oos.org.uk/report.php. Even though it states the 2005 report is now available later years are too.

Gareth

Yeah, I tried this. Apparently no annual reports have been produced for Oxon for the last six years!!! The last one published was 2005... Not sure why this is....?

 

[gareth_blockley]

Yeah, I tried this. Apparently no annual reports have been produced for Oxon for the last six years!!! The last one published was 2005... Not sure why this is....?

Oh yeah that may be right. I thought there were later one's but I have just checked what I have and 2005 is the latest.

They are probably not ready yet - a lot of (voluntary) work goes into those reports and they must be a bit behind. Admitidly 6 years does seem to be quite a long time to be behind? Have you contacted Roy?

Gareth

 

[John Richards]

It seems there have been no Oxon reports produced since 2005.

 

[jimmyg]

It seems there have been no Oxon reports produced since 2005.

The 2005 report was the one I received with my OOS subscription for the current year, and the 2004 one before that, so I'd guess 2006 will be out soonish.

 

[gareth_blockley]

Several quail about on the oxon downs at the moment. Check out the oxon bird log
for details. Gareth

 

[Mari E]

Back from Spain(school trip) glad I'm not gripped off on anything but I didn't see anything too amazing in Spain either!