Description

This is no Farmoor, Otmoor or Port Meadow. This is Grimsbury. It's Grim up north!

There is a running total year list in the link above.

Please send in your bird sightings to the B.O.S. and/or to me directly for inclusion on the blog. If you have some photos you would like to contribute please let me know (contact via the comments box on the right if you do not have my email already). Thank you.

Saturday 27 February 2021

27th Feb 2021: Chiffchaff

The first hint of Spring today with a singing Chiffchaff along the river at the back of the woodland. I assume this must be a bird that wintered locally - maybe at Sptial Farm Lake/the Sewage Treatment Works. There was also a Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell on the wing.

Sunday 21 February 2021

21st Feb 2021: Winter blues

People talk about the summer doldrums, but my opinion is the winter is worse. We've started our year lists and tallied up as many species as we can mid winter and then we start looking forward to spring. And what a long and boring wait that is.... at least in the 'summer doldrum' period of the year there should be other flora and fauna to look at and, in theory, nice weather to enjoy! Anyway, since the last blog post the winter species seen were very much the same but there was a few things to keep us interested.

The most notable sighting being a Raven Adrian T saw fly over on the 1st Feb. A Little Grebe was around on the reservoir for a few weeks, which is very unusual for here. There was a really good number of Tufted Ducks around using both the reservoir and the Borrow Pit pool with several counts of over 50 birds and for much of the time a drake Pochard around too. The Great Crested Grebe count peaked at six birds. The regular Stonechats remained at the Borrow Pit and in the cattle field and Mike had five on one day, so there must have been an additional pair that moved in late winter - possibly on passage. Also there were several Siskins around for the most part.