Lift-off of the Great Bustard from Big Otmoor
Otmoor RSPB Nature Reserve, near Beckley, Oxfordshire (April 2010)
Record shot - the low quality is due to heat haze.
Saturday 10 April 2010, 11:45 - 12:15. Observed towards the back of Big Otmoor from the Bridleway just beyond the new hide. The bird has a Red 28 tag and is a presumed escapee from the Great Bustard reintroduction project on Salisbury Plain. Red 28 is believed to be a female according to Tim Taylor's WildImaging website where excellent photos of this particular bird taken on the Somerset Levels on 27 March 2010 can be viewed here. According to Bill Urwin, Red 28 spent most of the winter near the village of High Ham, Somerset. Bill's pictures of this bird can be seen here. The Otmoor bird was seen by me to take off towards the north at 12:15 passing over the trees at the far edge of Big Otmoor and out of sight. An attempt to relocate it in the fields to the left of the path between the first and second screens was unsuccessful. However, Lee G R Evans did discover it in fields to the SSE of Oddington village between 16:00 and 18:00 later the same day. More details on his blog here together with the best photo I've seen so far of this bird by Roger Wyatt.
Record shot - the low quality is due to heat haze.
Saturday 10 April 2010, 11:45 - 12:15. Observed towards the back of Big Otmoor from the Bridleway just beyond the new hide. The bird has a Red 28 tag and is a presumed escapee from the Great Bustard reintroduction project on Salisbury Plain. Red 28 is believed to be a female according to Tim Taylor's WildImaging website where excellent photos of this particular bird taken on the Somerset Levels on 27 March 2010 can be viewed here. According to Bill Urwin, Red 28 spent most of the winter near the village of High Ham, Somerset. Bill's pictures of this bird can be seen here. The Otmoor bird was seen by me to take off towards the north at 12:15 passing over the trees at the far edge of Big Otmoor and out of sight. An attempt to relocate it in the fields to the left of the path between the first and second screens was unsuccessful. However, Lee G R Evans did discover it in fields to the SSE of Oddington village between 16:00 and 18:00 later the same day. More details on his blog here together with the best photo I've seen so far of this bird by Roger Wyatt.
Also in: Great Bustard
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