Alan Parfitt led a walk at the RSPB’s Otmoor reserve on the morning of Saturday 6th June. The reserve is designed to provide wet grassland and reedbed mainly for breeding wading birds, such as Lapwing, Snipe and Redshank and reedbed species such as Bearded Tit, Marsh Harrier and Bittern. A variety of orchids and less common wet grassland plants are now present across the site and it is very good for dragonflies. Several Turtle Doves were calling from nearby while the group were assembling in the car park. The walk started in The Closes, a restricted area of meadow which had been restored from arable farm land. Within an area protected by an electric fence were about 6 clumps of Fen Violet, known from only 2 other sites in the UK. The flowers are a very pale blue, with darker blue veins. The plants had originally been grown from seeds gathered at the adjoining Otmoor SSSI for the Millenium Seed Bank. A certain proportion of the seeds are tested for viability and the RSPB had been given the resulting plants. They were planted out in a strip of varying wetness to try and assess what was the best hydrology for the plants. Only the specimens in a small part of the test area were thriving – they apparently needed suitably wet conditions in winter, with drier conditions in spring and summer. A number of flowers of Grass Vetchling were found nearby. Across the field, Lapwings and a Redshank flew up in alarm, disturbed by a female Marsh Harrier, which was brown with a cream-coloured crown.
The route led back to the field gate, then along the main entrance track. Below a large willow stump in the hedge across the ditch from the path, a Grass Snake which was at least 18 inches long slithered out of the water and up the bank. Then a grey and black stripey band wrapped round part of the stump started to move and proved to be a much larger Grass Snake, at least twice as long as the first specimen. Continuing along the track next to the large Greenaways field, there were excellent views of a Turtle Dove which was calling from a nearby Oak tree. Reed Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats were singing nearby and there were distant views of Hobbies and Marsh Harriers. The pale pink flowers of Water-violet were growing in the ditch next to the track. The route continued to a viewing screen which looked out over a lagoon. A Tufted Duck escorted a family of ducklings and a Common Tern perched on a branch which emerged from the water. Two Hobbies were watched as they flew over the nearby fields. After a brief visit to the Wetlands Watch lookout point, the return route followed a bridleway along the southern boundary of the reserve and back to the car park.
Pictures by Rob Stallard and Laurie Haseler