I will recount my day to hopefully help anyone who stumbles across this thread in the future.
Our first stop was Whitecross Green Woods which had been closed until recently and the mowing of the rides had only just taken place recently. The workgroup was still there raking the clippings into large piles. The rides are very wide mown grass lanes that are about 5 metres wide that criss cross the wood and you are reminded to keep only within the mown lanes to protect the wildlife.
It is worth mentioning here that if you do use Google as a sat nav on your phone it will take you to the wrong place. It takes you to Panshill Leisure Lodges and the woods is behind it and cannot be accessed here. Once on Fencott Road, look for Panns Hill Cottage which is the smallest thatched cottage I have ever seen. The entrance is opposite this cottage where there are two gates, trhe left leads into a horse paddock and the right one to the reserve. You have to open the gates across the road and close them behind you.
Others were also on the hunt and we were offered advice on where was best to search but apart from a brown whir that zipped over our heads we were not having any luck. One of the others who we stopped to chat to told us that he had never seen one there and had been multiple times. He told us that the most reliable site in the area was Otmoor RSPB, outside the main entrance on the old Roman road. He told us that although it is the most reliable it will very most likely be the busiest too and the traffic of BHS enthusiasts means that that it gets very trampled and that if we did seen any there would be at least twelve others to share it with. The leader of the work party aslo confirmed that this was the case.
We decided that a shared BHS was better then no BHS and we would head to Otmoor RSPB. The resreve is on Otmoor Lane and you turn left at the end of the road to enter the car park which is £2 in an honesty box. We were told to come back out of the car park and the old Roman Road is the track on the left right at the entrance which is a narrow track with hemmed in by Blackthorn, Oak trees, nettles and brambles.
We started to walk the track and bumped into another enthusiast who told us he had seen one take off as he arrived at it and that the person behind him further down the track had seen it landed before he arrived and it took off. We went our separate ways and continued on the track until we met with the next person who confirmed that he had indded seen one briefly and that it had taken on off very quickly. He was heading back to his car for a drink as he had been there for three hours already and we went our separate ways.
After about two or three minutes in which we had continued for about another 100 yards the person we had just met shouted down the track to us "there's one here!" so we turned and scuttled back in that direction sure that we would miss it or as is usually the case , it will wait until we just catch a glimpse and then decide to take off
We slowed as we approached the spot where he stood and he he stepped back and pointed to what I think is hogweed (I will be happy to be corrected) and a beatifully fresh male BHS feeding. My first one
It stayed there for well over ten minutes and was oblivious to all three of us snapping away as it rotated round and round on the flower head feeding away. It gave all three of us plenty of opportunity as it rotated so we just stood waiting until it came back round to offer each of us its best angle. The sun was constantly popping in and out of cloud which proved a bit challenging and because of the narrowness of the track and the height of the tress that hem it in, the light was not the best at times and it stayed long enough to make the movment of the sun noticable as it was approaching being directly overhead. We couldn't quite get down level to take a shot because of the height of the nettles between us and the BHS. The gentleman who kindly alerted it to us left after getting the shots he wanted and left us with it.
It never fully opened up its wings but opened them just enough for us to see it was definately male It stayed until something was crawling up my leg which I turned to brush away and when I looked back it had gone.
Other than this encounter, the only glimpse I got was of one high up which I managed to get a full zoom shaky shot of which confirms what it was.
All in all I was very happy with my first encounter with a BHS and will definately return to Otmoor to explore further in the future because I never actually went any further into the reserve than the car park
I must give thanks to the gentleman who very kindly was willing to tell us about it because if it hadn't been for his kindness, then we may not have seen one other the one high up in the canopy.