6 of us met at Otmoor on the edge of Oxford for one of the first wildlife walks to take place during an AOG. We were a mixture of experience but everyone was very keen to see what wildlife, and in particular bird life, could be found at this remote site only seven miles out of the city.

We were incredibly lucky to see a Common Crane flying past very early on, which was followed by a couple of Bitterns, several Marsh Harriers, and a couple of early Autumn migrants which we saw from the first screen: Wood Sandpiper and Black-tailed Godwit.

We carried on to the far screen where we had lunch in the sunshine, but the weather did not cooperate for long and we all got thoroughly drenched on our way back to the main hide. It was a bit quieter here but a distant Cattle Egret did the decent thing and flew towards us, only to land right in front of the hide, enabling us to compare it to its more slender and more common relative, the Little Egret.

I would like to thank the rest of their group for their interest, even while I was droning on about dragonflies, flowers and of course the bird life. You were a great group and I felt very proud to show you one of my favourite wildlife sites!

Mike Wilkinson xx