Banbury Ornithological Society - Tadmarton Heath Reserve

Location: SP396356 - Access to BOS Members. First-time visitors are asked to contact the warden Cliff May on 07960 623849 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.l, before your visit. If you visit the reserve on your own, please inform someone of your visit as it is a remote site with few visitors.

PostCode for SatNav: OX15 5HL

Please read the Risk Assessment before you visit the reserve

Please only park at the bottom of the visitors' car park (the car park to the left, next to the driving range). Sometimes the car park is full due to an event at the Golf Club, golfers take priority for the parking spaces. Please check the Tadmarton Heath Golf Club website (https://www.tadmartongolf.com/opens)

Butterflies recorded include Marbled White, Common Blue and Small Copper.

A farmland habitat of 7.3ha was purchased by the BOS in 2005. The rotational bird crops grown on the arable section have proved successful in providing plenty of winter feed for reed bunting, dunnock and finches. Management of the meadow has involved the planting of clumps of gorse, which have become valuable cover for small birds. Some old meadow plant species are establishing themselves, such as Common Spotted Orchid, Common Fleabane and Yellow Rattle.

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 ...

"30 by 30" – Bringing our wildlife back - Ian Jelley, Director of Landscape Recovery, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust

The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth and 16% of all of our species are under threat from extinction as a result of human activity. So what can we do? The Wildlife Trusts believe in the science that demonstrates if 30% of the UK land and sea supports nature then our nature will recover. Read more ...

A survey where observers are each given a randomly selected 1km square and record all the species encountered and numbers of each for a minimum period of 2 hours between 9am and noon. Read more ...

Reserves

Tadmarton Heath Reserve

The BOS Curlew Recovery Project

13 October 2025 - Indoor Meeting at 7.30pm

Winter Random Square Survey: 22 or 23 November 2025