My late father believed that a successful life was in a ratio of ten per cent hard work and 90 per cent luck. I guess there is also an element of the harder we try, the luckier we get. I had my share of good luck recently when birding south of Bampton, coming face to face with a rather lively dog that was giving a pretty good impression of wanting to eat me.

The owner eventually restrained it and carried on their way with the dog making loud barking and growling noises.

Because of the disturbance being created it was pointless continuing to the River Thames as I had intended, so I reluctantly turned back. I am not sure exactly what it was about the five blackbirds looking for food on the recently sown ground but something did indeed catch my eye or perhaps did not seem quite right, so raising my binoculars I was surprised to see one of the birds had a striking white bib — I was looking at a ring ouzel.

Oxfordshire usually records a few of these attractive birds on passage, mostly on the hilly Chiltern downlands at places such as Linky Down, near Aston Rowant, but much less so in the Thames Valley.

After taking some distant photos of this attractive bird on the ground, I was musing to myself if only it would fly into the nearby trees and give me a chance of a decent photo. Lo and behold, my luck was still holding.

The bird suddenly flew into a fairly close branch giving me the opportunity to get a reasonable picture (see below). This bird, along with many others (although they are sadly in decline), will eventually arrive in the north to breed on mountain and moorland.

Another ring ouzel seen this spring in the Eynsham area by OOS member Sally Taylor was first spotted by a local farmer who had dismissed it as a partial albino blackbird. We were able to inform him to his great delight of the unusual sighting he had experienced.

This illustrates why it is always worth contacting the OOS in order for us to help identify any bird you are uncertain about. You can find us at www.oos.org.uk The March article I contributed elicited some interesting comments and I wish to thank those people for taking the time to help us all understand the natural world around us. I again invite comments or questions concerning our OOS articles or indeed any wildlife related matters. You can comment using the marvellous The Oxford Times website at oxfordtimes.co.uk/leisure/outdoors/ Barry Hudson Oxford Ornithological Society