23rd Sep 2016

With the day off I had a really good walk around and look for birds today. The two Common Sandpipers were still at the reservoir. A few Meadow Pipits were flying over south and every so often a Chiffchaff would give a brief burst of song. A Sparrowhawk gave really good views around the sailing club and is the first one I have seen here for a few weeks. A Willow Tit called but went unseen in the woods and two Yellowhammers were in the field west of the canal between the railway and the motorway. This is of note as we don't get many and it is the first sighting I have had of multiple birds here.

The best part of the morning was the visible migration through the Upper Cherwell Valley. As soon as I got past the motorway I saw there were Swallows flying through. I got to the top of the bund and in my first binocular sweep counted over fifty birds. They were flying south east, apparently following the line of the motorway and not down the river valley. I stood and watched and they just kept coming. For a period of just short of an hour around 600 to 650 birds flew through! I lost count and to be honest an accurate count was pretty much impossible, but I kept a rough tally of numbers and that is a minimum number of birds. Along with them were over 100 House Martins, over 50 Meadow Pipits, three Skylarks and two Grey Wagtails.

John had a Wigeon at lunch time and by the evening John and Mike had three present. John had a first winter Med Gull drop in and a Common Gull in the evening too.