04th Jan 2015: B.O.S. Short Day Count

The first Sunday of the year is traditionally the timing of the B.O.S. short day count. It involves teams of birders setting out to record as many species of bird as they can in one of the twelve 10 km squares that the B.O.S. area covers. The count is over an eight hour period from 8am to 4pm. For more information see here.

I decided to cover SP44, which completely coincidently includes Grimsbury Reservoir, woodland and the Upper Cherwell Valley. The par score set for number of species to see in this square was 58. A fairly difficult target to hit if certain species were not seen on the day.

Fog made it hard work!

We saw a total of 56 species. A Common Chiffchaff in the woodland at Grimsbury was the only notable bird really.
Note - I have been informed another team covering SP44 saw the Willow Tit on Sunday.

Other species of note were two Stonechats at Hanwell Fields, Goosander (drake) at Clattercote Reservior and 17 Wigeon and 13 Teal at Farnborough Park Lakes.