Category: Members

Gavin Hageman writes:

For around five years I have been keeping an eye out for otter spraint by the river Windrush near where I live in Witney, always hoping that they will be once again abundant in the area as they were a few decades ago, given that they are making a gradual comeback across the country along with the other rarer mustelids such as the pine Martin and polecat.

Sue Morton writes:

Each year in early May I watch for the first speckled bush cricket nymphs of the year to appear in my garden. 

Sue Morton writes:

We were surprised to see something rather unexpected on the old tern raft at Witney Lake a couple of weeks ago….

Lindsay Fisher writes:

I spotted a Little Egret at the Bathing Place the other day…..

John C. writes:

The full report of the club’s visit to Whitehill Woods last Sunday will appear in due course, but I can’t resist reporting one thing that only a few of us who were lingering at the back saw.

David Roberts writes:

I found this smooth newt under a pot in my greenhouse. I think it’s a young immature one from last year.

Sue Morton writes:

In the last week, I’ve heard my first chiffchaff and seen my first bee fly, sure signs that spring is here.

Thanks to everyone who identified the exotic bird at Rushy Common. The consensus is that she was a female melanistic common pheasant, in particular Lindsay Fisher writes:

John C writes:

After spending another morning removing tree guards at Tar Lakes with the LWVP volunteers, I went to eat my lunch in the Rushy Common hide, as I usually do. Except for about a hundred wigeon and a solitary female goldeneye, the overwintering ducks had all left. I didn’t think that there would be anything interesting until I looked underneath the feeders.

John C writes:

Having missed, for obvious reasons, a birding trip in the winter of 20 – 21 we went down to Exmouth for the weekend of 19 – 21 February, almost exactly two years since our last visit. We hoped that we wouldn’t be too late for the winter migrants, particularly the avocets on the Exe estuary.