Otters in 2026

When this blog started it was mainly to document the local water voles (more on them in a later post), but within 12 months it became obvious that the return of otters to the Ock would be become a major source of interest, firstly with finding of spraints:

https://viewsoftheock.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-search-of-otters.html

And observing the remains of one of their favourite foods - signal crayfish: 

https://viewsoftheock.blogspot.com/2010/08/crayfish-murders-another-victim.html

But the thought of actually seeing one, let alone getting photographs seemed impossible, but 2011 proved be a year of extraordinary encounters:

https://viewsoftheock.blogspot.com/2011/05/otters.html

https://viewsoftheock.blogspot.com/2011/12/review-of-year-2011.html

Yet 14 years later, the otters are still residing in the Ock and still eating crayfish:

As otters live for at about 3 years, this could be signs of the great great great grandchild glimpsed all those years ago.

In search of Sklylarks

As mentioned in the previous blog post, there are indications that Skylarks are singing (if not nesting successfully) over the fields of south Abingdon

So with a new sense of optimism the blog set out early morning to try to and catch a sight of this iconic bird.

Although seeing them is unlikely. Not only are they are a small bird which flies up the fields to either deter predators or to try to attract a mate but the UK population has fell by 50% since the 1980's[1] with the most likely cause loss and changes of habitiat, especially the modern move to different crops[2].

But to the blog's suprise they are in Abingdon are what a delight to spend a late April morning watching them sing.  So someone appears to be doing something right in the nearby fields and may they continue to sing for years to come.

Although one of the things that has not changed over the past 5 years is the poor quality photography in the blog

Sources

[1] RSPB Handbook of British Birds (2006)

[2] BTO  https://www.bto.org/learn/about-birds/birdfacts/skylark

New Technology #1

 Whilst this blog has been dorment, the world has moved on, and things which seemed like science fiction five years ago and now used all the time. 

One of the obvious changes is the rise in wildlife identifation apps and probably the most impressive of those is Merlin:  https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org.

Whilst some bird songs are fairly easy to distinguish - robins, blackbirds, wren - most seem only identifiable by experienced Ornithologists. So Cornell Univesity (https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/) have set out to help answer one of most common questions "what is that bird song?" and best of all it's free (although donations are welcome).

Using a smart phone, whilst the app is open, it detects even the quietest bird song (and amazingly ignores the any background noise).

And this is what it recorded in the fields around south Abingdon:

.

The Redstart & Stonechat seem somewhat optimistic and the probability of Redshank in south Abingdon is almost certainly fanciful, but the others are very good identifications. And illustrates that whilst UK birds are declining there is still a diverse range of song birds in the area.

And interesting and tantalising is the thought of skylarks nesting in the fields near where we live.....

Return to the blogosphere (again)?

There are many reasons why this blog fell into decline 

- lack of inspiration:  there are only so many times you can write about water voles

- Family illness: the less said the better 

- COVID: the move to working from home has resulted in less willingness to spend spare time on a laptop.

But maybe the muse is back, and the intention is to write one post per week - but lets see what happens

.