While February can be a difficult month for watching wildlife, some secretive and less common animal and bird species are more likely to be found in the Oxfordshire countryside now than at any other time of the year.

In fact some will only be encountered during the coldest months in the calendar. This is particularly true of some of our most fascinating wild birds - especially the short-eared owl.

Records of this day-flying owl in Oxfordshire during summer months are virtually unheard of, but in winter single or multiple birds might be sighted over any area of the more remote and open landscapes around Oxford.

Favoured sites range from both dry habitat, such as the Oxfordshire Downlands, through to wet environments including the rank grasslands around Grimsbury Reservoir, Little Wittenham Nature Reserve, the Lower Windrush Gravel Pits complex and especially Otmoor.

Less likely to be chanced upon and easily overlooked is the nocturnal long-eared owl.

I was fortunate enough to find one perched atop a bare shrub in driving rain in West Oxfordshire towards the end of last month.

However, Oxfordshire records are few and far between and tend to come from areas of thorny scrub and isolated patches of coniferous woodland on the calcareous soils of the Downs.

Areas of conifer plantation are also the place to search for another very rare Oxfordshire bird, the common crossbill. There are very few breeding records of this species in our area and not many more wintering birds recorded.

However, suitable areas of the Warburg Reserve, Badbury Forest and Coxwell Woods have produced a number of recent winter sightings and in irruption' years, when many thousands of birds arrive in the country from Fennoscandia, there is always the chance that small flocks may augment the usual small numbers of this species present.

Away from woodland, the county's watercourses, lakes and reservoirs will often throw up rarities otherwise absent or hard to find once warmer weather promotes new vegetation growth. In the reedy margins of Blenheim Park Lakes, Otmoor, Lashford Lane Fen and Port Meadow, the lucky observer may happen upon the elusive and locally rare water rail - the harsher the weather the more chance of spying this skulking creature. This rail is almost entirely absent from the area in summer months and winter birds arrive here from elsewhere in the country and from Europe.

Even less likely but worth keeping an eye open for is the equally shy bittern. With ambitious reed-bed recreation schemes under way in many areas of the country, including Otmoor (where in historical times they are believed to have regularly nested), numbers of this impressive and cryptically-marked bird will hopefully rise from the current pitifully small population, and the bird will become a more frequent winter visitor to Oxfordshire.

However, Blenheim Park and the Cherwell Valley have recently recorded bittern and will be amongst the best spots to go searching.

The Cherwell Valley, especially during spells of winter flooding, is also the most certain site in our area to watch wintering whooper swan, these birds being among the most southerly of their species wintering in the UK. Visiting Bewick's swan may be present here too and the Lower Windrush gravel pits is also a known, if occasional, winter haunt of the smallest of our wild swans.

One bird that is present in the Oxfordshire countryside throughout the year, if in small numbers, but which is both easier to find and around in greater quantity during the winter, is the snipe.

The rushy margins of the River Cherwell will provide reasonable viewing opportunities but Port Meadow, in Oxford, perhaps is the most reliable place to encounter this retiring wader.

Elsewhere they may be found in field ditch systems and along the wilder watercourses including the River Evenlode near Foxholes Reserve, the River Thames at Chimney Meadows and along much of the length of the River Windrush.

The snipe's diminutive relative, the jack snipe, is a much less-likely candidate for ticking off but the Cherwell Valley and Otmoor are amongst a small number of local sites where the species regularly turns up at this time of the year.

Otmoor is fast beginning to regain its position as the county's premier wetland site and the numbers of prey species present is attracting once more two of our most spectacular and rare predatory bird species, the hen harrier and the marsh harrier.

The former species did occasionally nest in Oxfordshire until about 1830 but the latter had more of a toehold in the county, until the early part of the 19th century.

There is the possibility that Otmoor may provide this spectacular bird with suitable breeding habitat in future years.

Meanwhile, wintering birds of both species are the best that can be hoped for.

Many of our mammals too are best looked for around this time of year, deer especially often being forced out into open fields to graze and offering good viewing. Fallow deer are the species most likely to be seen but increasing numbers of roe deer wander the Oxfordshire countryside - but are usually to be found in ones and twos only.

Despite the need to search for winter food away from cover, these large animals are unlikely to be found too far from woodland and the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire wildlife reserves of Foxcote, Sydlings Copse and Warburg are as good as anywhere in the district to watch them.

The tiny muntjac is to be found here also, but is much more secretive and largely nocturnal and therefore often best seen caught in the headlights of your car when driving after dusk in wooded areas.

Winter, of course, offers little of interest to the plant-hunter, but mosses, lichens and liverworts provide all-year-round fascination and now is as good a time as any to search these out and put a magnifying glass to them.

Go to Rushbed Woods or Dry Sandford Pit for some of the less common species, or simply wander around your local churchyard where this fascinating form of botanical life often finds refuge.