Banbury Ornithological Society - Pauline Flick Reserve

Location: SP323302 - access from the minor road B4026 to Great Rollright from Chipping Norton.

Postcode for SatNav: OX7 5RE What3Words: lilac.spun.cones

Please read the Risk Assessment before you visit the reserve

Open access to all members and the public.

The reserve comprises a half-mile stretch (approximately 2 ha) of disused railway line through limestone brash farmland close to Great Rollright.

There is a good variety of flora and certain areas are kept free of scrub to enable orchids and other plant species to flourish. These more open areas are also favoured by sun-loving reptiles, such as Common Lizard and Grass Snake. Glow-worm are present and a good number and range of butterflies. Hare, Weasel and Harvest Mouse are present.

Blackcap and Chiffchaff are present annually and occasionally other species of warbler. Farmland and woodland birds are present including Yellowhammer, Chaffinch and Bullfinch, Goldcrest, Treecreeper, Jay, Great Spotted and Green Woodpecker.

UK currently holds approximately a quarter of the global Curlew population, with estimates for England of about 30,000 pairs. National monitoring data show that this population has been in long-term decline since the 1970s and has almost halved in the UK over the last 20 years. In lowland southern England, the population has declined to about 500 pairs, with many colonies on the verge of local extinction. Read more ...

Birds of Poole Harbour – Mya Bambrick

Poole Harbour is made up of many different habitats, which in turn provides a stunning variety of bird life throughout the entire year. The harbour is a designated RAMSAR site and has SPA (Special Protection Area) designation. This means it hosts nationally and internationally important numbers of a whole host of bird species, making it one of the most ecologically important areas in Britain, not to mention being bordered by some of the most pristine examples of lowland heathland in the country. Read more ...

Our annual winter count, carried out by teams of observers in each of the twelve 10km square, to record the number of bird species seen between 8am and 4pm. Read more ...

Reserves

Pauline Flick Reserve

The BOS Curlew Recovery Project

12 January 2026 - Meeting via Zoom @ 7.30pm

Short day count: 3 or 4 January 2026