Meeting my brother and family, in Oxford in the afternoon, so Helen and I decided to take a trip to RSPB Otmoor in the morning. So after a brief trip to the in laws for coffee we headed off to the reserve at Otmoor.
We did not go via the most direct route but headed out through Aylesbury towards Bicester. We turned right around Grendon Underwood and headed past Brill through some lovely typical Oxfordshire rolling country side. We found Otmoor easily and parked up. There were lots of birds about, Reed Bunting, Sedge Warbler, White Throat, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler to name a few spring migrants. There is a new hide been built since we last visited (See here) and it has great views over the wetland habitat they manage there. We heard someone mention Grasshopper Warbler but Helen could not hear it. After stolling around for an hour and a half we headed back to the Oxford Park and Ride. Parking was at a premium but we were soon on a bus into Oxford centre.
We were quite hungry by then and headed for the covered market and found a table in Mortons for a cappucino and a falafel burger, and lovely they were, that’s one each not multiples each!
We then headed over to Blackwells for a browse round the books. It seems that the computer sections are not what they used to be, and I could not find what I was looking for. Got a text from Kev so we headed to the bus stop to wait for him. They soon arrived and we headed over to the indoor market to get some stuff for tea, then we headed out towards the Natural History Museum. Outside the building there is a new exhibit, which is really cool. They have mounted on concrete plinths the lower parts of some very big trees, you can see all the roots which have been cleaned up. Surprisingly the roots do not go very deep.
The museum as expected was a really hit with the kids, they especially liked the Pitt Rivers section with all the old cabinets and dark room. The swifts had not arrive back yet so there was no chance to see the usual video feed.
It was quite late in the day so we were kicked out of Pitt Rivers then we quickly finished the main part of the museum, then walked past the Bodelian library back to the bus stop, then we were soon back to the car and en route home. A great day out.