29th Dec 2024: Barnacle Goose

The previous couple of weeks have been very quiet, with a pair of Gadwall being the 'highlight'.

Today Clive found a Barnacle Goose to give the year list a last minute boost. There was also 4 Wigeon.

8th Dec 2024: Jack Snipe

Assuming it was the same bird, the Little Egret was still in the cattle field on Tuesday when Steve H visited.

On Thursday JFT had a good look around the patch. There wasn't anything much at the reservoir but up in the valley he saw our first Jack Snipe of the year with c.10 Common Snipe, a Cetti's Warbler, a Stonechat and 2 Gadwall.

1st Dec 2024: Flooding again..

Following a whole weekend of rain the River Cherwell levels raised up to just 2 cm off the record level at the local measuring station and much of the area was flooded again, for the third time this year! Access to the reservoir was possible again by Wednesday when the water levels finally started dropping again.

It was a quiet week but JFT had noted a lot of ducks up the valley in the flooded fields on Saturday, with good numbers of Shoveler, Teal and Wigeon.

A Little Egret has been in the cattle field since Friday at least, foraging around the flooded ditches and temporary pools. I did see fish in one of the pools of water on Wednesday, so I expect it's having a feast. There was also a Chiffchaff on Friday and a Lesser Redpoll yesterday and Clive had 2 Gadwall this morning.

Tuesday afternoon after the river level had already started falling

More erosion of the path near the river

24th Nov 2024

The Velvet Scoters were last seen on Tuesday and after a 13 day visit they have gone!

The rest of the week was back to, fairly mundane, normality. John saw a Little Egret and 3 Little Grebes on Wednesday and there was a Chiffchaff on Friday. Three Little Grebes is actually notable for the reservoir, but frequency of sightings has increased quite rapidly in recent years.

Courtesy and copyright of Dave Fuller

17th Nov 2024: Velvet Scoters still

The 2 Velvet Scoters remained this week, up to late morning today at least. It turns out that there wasn't any sailing last Sunday and there wasn't any today either. They could leave any day but for now they seem to be quite happy here.

There were 2 Yellowhammer and a Lapwing on Wednesday morning. John had 2 Wigeon, a Redpoll, and 3 Lapwing Thursday morning and up the valley saw a Stonechat and 13 Snipe. Friday afternoon there was a adult female Pochard and Chiffchaff.

This morning 2 Ravens, a Little Egret and 2 Egyptian Geese flew over and there was at least 2 Siskins around. 

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

10th Nov 2024: VELVET SCOTERS and GLOSSY IBIS!!

It has been an incredible, almost unbelievable, week on patch with two entirely new birds for the site. Of which one is a first and one is a second (?) for the B.O.S. recording area. On top of a very good supporting cast, which would have made it a great week anyway.

It kicked off on Wednesday technically, but I didn't know about that until Friday, with regular bird-watching dog walker John Beak seeing and adult drake Common Scoter. The first of several new birds for the year seen this week.

News broke on Thursday afternoon of 2 VELVET SCOTERS! Initially seen by Keith Freshwater, he posted a photo of one of the birds on the local whatsapp group to confirm the ID and then revealed that there were 2 of them. A lot of people went to see them that afternoon and they were still present the next day. Surprisingly they were present up to the end of the week, with even the sailing (if there was any today?) not flushing them away. They have been seen flying around the reservoir but otherwise actually seem quite settled in.

On Friday morning I had our first Brambling of the year fly over. Saturday morning Steve Sansom found two Goldeneye on the reservoir and that afternoon Adam Hartley saw our first Dunlin of the year. Goldeneye is now a really good bird for the site and, for context, we've had as many (maybe more) records of Common Scoter in the 10 years or so. It has been a really poor year for waders too, so the addition of Dunlin is very welcome.

This morning I had another Hawfinch over calling c.10-12 times and not very high, which made me wonder if it had actually roosted on or near to site and was just setting off again. In the afternoon I was out for a walk with a friend, with no optics or camera, and just so happened to end up going round the reservoir. He asked me if one of the birds flying over was a Cormorant and I looked up to see a GLOSSY IBIS! Panic set in as I tried to take some phone photos of it and they were terrible. Thankfully, with other birders on site for the Velvet Scoters, some of them had seen it too and Duncan Dine managed to get a photo of it.

Other birds seen this week were a good amount (for here) of more common wildfowl, including 3 Shoveler, up to 5 Wigeon, 3 Teal, 2 Pochard, and 178 Greylag Geese. There was also a Snipe one morning, more Lapwing, another Redpoll one morning and up to 3-4 Chiffchaffs around.

Oh, and the Snow Goose was still around too.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of Adam Hartley

Courtesy and copyright of Duncan Dine

3rd Nov 2024

The Snow Goose was still present this week, seen on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and numbers of Greylags are building up again with 72 seen on Saturday. Other wildfowl of note seen today by Clive were 1 each of Teal and Wigeon and 2 Gadwall. 

A massive number (for here) of 86 Cormorant were present on Saturday morning, with most only present for a brief time before dispersing. Realistically there was likely more with smaller numbers coming and going throughout the morning. The ringed bird (084) was still present. 

Small numbers of 1-3 Lapwings have still been around and Clive saw 24 this morning. 

A ringed Black-headed Gull (EMK1) was recorded again Saturday morning. One from the Netherlands that we have seen here a few times over the last couple of years.

Numbers of Redwings have been building up with more birds now settled in and c.45-50 birds left roosts early Thursday morning. Our first Fieldfares of the Autumn were this week too, with 13 on Saturday and 6 today. However, there seems to be less than usual, especially flocks flying overhead on migration, as we'd normally have recorded hundreds by now. A Mistle Thrush was also seen on Tuesday.

A Stonechat was seen on Friday. A few Siskins seem settled in now and a single Redpoll has been seen twice this week. The number of Chaffinches is clearly bolstered by migratory birds too. 

27th Oct 2024: Hawfinches!

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, but last Saturday 2 Stonechats were at the Borrow Pit and 3 Cattle Egrets were just off patch in the Upper Cherwell Valley.

Yesterday afternoon there was at least two Chiffchaffs still with the roaming tit flocks.

This morning was a bit more lively with a lot of birds moving around overhead, including Chaffinches, Wood Pigeons, Redwings (just a few), Skylarks, Meadow Pipits and the odd Siskin noted. With clear blue skies and bright sunshine I'm sure there was more but went over unseen. Notable highlights were 2 Great White Egrets that went south then doubled back north, 3 Lapwing south, 4 Hawfinches north that JFT picked out whilst we were watching a Crow mob a Sparrowhawk up high, and a Mistle Thrush. The Snow Goose was also present again early.

The Hawfinches are a really good patch/local sighting and clearly part of an influx this Autumn, although so far it's not as big as the influx in 2017.

13th Oct 2024

The Snow Goose was still around this week, seen Monday and Wednesday at least. Thursday there was also 3 Shoveler at the reservoir, as well as 2+ Siskin and a colour ringed Conmorant. The Cormorant was ringed this June as a nestling, on Puffin Island in Wales. On Friday there was a Stonechat at the Borrow Pit.

6th Oct 2024: Mandarin Duck

A new edition to the year list today was a fem/imm Mandarin Duck that left before I could get a better look at it. This was as well as 2 Egyptian Geese and a Snow Goose seen yesterday. All wild of course...

There were some autumn migrants with a Redwing on Thursday and 6 Siskin today. A Yellow Wagtail over on Wednesday, a Snipe and 6 Gadwall over on Thursday and a Yellowhammer in the cattle field Friday added a little interest. Otherwise there's still a good number of hirundines passing through, sometimes lingering, several Chiffchaffs and the odd Blackcap.

29th Sep 2024

It's been a generally quiet week. Steve Holliday saw a Pintail (fem/imm) on Tuesday morning that circled the reservoir but flew north.

On Wednesday morning the rain from previous couple of days had forced the river to overflow and the entrance, cattle field and paths around the wood were all flooded. I had at least 103 Meadow Pipits over flying south-east in 1 hour, mostly in small groups (including groups of 32, 15, 20 and 10), and several others around/grounded. there was also 1 Skylark over south-east, at least 22 Pied Wagtails around and a lot of small gulls including 2-3 Common Gulls.

The weekend was fairly quiet and uneventful, but a Mistle Thrush that dropped in for around 5 minutes on Friday afternoon was nice.

22nd Sep 2024: Great White Egret

With easterlies forecast for most of the week and at least cloud cover most days I had high hopes of adding a few more species to the year list, especially after the easterlies earlier in the month. I was thinking along the lines of more waders, terns (I haven't seen Common Tern yet this year) or maybe even a Spotted Flycatcher for the year list (fast becoming a really good patch bird!), but it wasn't to be.

The highlight of an actually very quiet week was a Great White Egret over on Thursday morning. It circled looking like it was going to land but carried on north. Otherwise there's been a good variety of ducks (for here), with up to 2 Teal on a few days, 2 Wigeon on Thursday, a Shoveler Friday and 2 Gadwall Saturday amongst the usuals. JFT had a Snipe flyover north on Saturday, there's been a couple of Yellow Wagtails and a Kingfisher around most days.

15th Sep 2024

Quite a good week with a few nice birds. On Wednesday evening JFT found a juvenile Arctic Tern. Friday afternoon another Whinchat (or a lingering bird maybe) was in the cattle field and was around until today at least. There was also a 2cy Yellow-legged Gull.

This morning there was a Wheatear with the Whinchat, but it didn't hang around very long. A Lesser Whitethroat was along the western bank and a steady passage of hirundines, mostly Swallows, overhead.

8th Sep 2024

Sandra found a Redstart on Monday along with a Whinchat still and later in the day another Redstart was seen. On Thursay JFT had 4 Shovelers and a Common Tern.

Yesterday there was a bit of a fall with a Redstart, 3-4 Whinchats, 2+ Wheatears and a couple of Yellow Wagtails all in the Cattle Field. In addition there was a Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler amongst a really good number of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps. 

This morning there was 2 Shoveler, Little Egret, Common Sandpiper, Kingfisher, and Yellow Wagtail. The first couple of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks over of the autumn. Adrian T also saw a Whinchat in the Cattle Field.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

1st Sep 2024: Pochard and Nuthatch

On Monday Clive found the first Pochard of the year on the reservoir, which stayed around till today. There was a Common Tern too and JFT had 2 Yellow-legged Gulls in the afternoon.

A Teal, Common Sandpiper, and Yellow-legged Gull on Wednesday and Kingfisher, Cetti's Warbler, and 3-4 Yellow-legged Gulls yesterday.

This morning JFT and I were out early and were rewarded with 2 Whinchat, with individuals seen in different places. Also 6 Yellow Wagtails over, Teal, 2 Swifts, 2 Little Egrets and a Nuthatch calling in the woodland. 

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT