29th Mar 2026: early spring arrivals

On the 16th Clive had c.20 Redpolls still but numbers appear to have dropped off since, he also had 6 Ravens over that day. A late-ish Fieldfare was seen by Ian on the 17th.

On the 18th our first singing Blackcap of the year, following a few sightings of wintering birds. There were 3 flyovers of Peregrine again this morning, all apparently different individuals and heading north. Ian and I had seen one earlier perched up on JDE and Clive had seen another flyover Morrisons on his way to the reservoir. 

Adrian Tysoe had our first Swallow of the year on the 21st and on the 22nd JFT found another Wheatear.

Monday 23rd another Oystercatcher was seen by Clive but this one did not stay around for long and on the 24th he had 2 Swallows.

Friday JFT found both our first House Martin and Willow Warbler of the year and there was 3 Swallows.

Courtesy and copyright of Edwin Barson

15th Mar 2026: Oystercatcher

The pair of Goldeneye stayed into this week, up until Tuesday, which is quite unusual for here. On Wednesday morning Clive found an Oystercatcher at the reservoir that also spent some time in the cattle field. Also unusually, that decided to stay around for a while and was last seen yesterday.

Friday morning Clive saw our first Sand Martins of the year, with 6 (but possibly up to 10) present in the morning and 1 lingering in the evening. Friday afternoon in the U.C.V. I found a Little Egret and a good flock of 45 Linnets in one of the fields.

This morning there was a lot of activity, with highlights of 1 Sand Martin, 2 singing Blackcaps, at least 14 Chiffchaff (inc. 12 singing birds), 21 Redpoll and a Yellowhammer. 

Courtesy and copyright of Kyle Smith

8th Mar 2026: Goldeneyes and Wheatear

There's clearly a bit of movement for spring happening now which is increasing the general interest and has provided a couple of good birds this week. 

Grenerally 4-5 Chiffchaffs have been present but I would say closer to, if not, double figures were around today. There's also clearly a more frequent turnover of Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails. The Cetti's Warbler is still present and 2 Mistle Thrushes were seen on Thursday.

A mobile (but very noisey) flock of finches is in the area feeding mostly on the Alders along the river, which today had 15-20 Redpolls, 15 Siskin and several Goldfinch.

Yesterday JFT found a pair of Goldeneye on the reservoir, which were still present today with 2 Shovelers also. 

This morning there was a very early Wheatear in the cattle field. It was distant from the reservoir and closer to the canal, feeding in the wet cattle poached area and not easy to see.

Fantastic Goldeneye pics, courtesy and copyright of JFT

1st Mar 2026

There are signs of spring being close and birds on the move already.

Two Stonechat were seen again at the reservoir on the 17th, which I assume are the same two that overwintered but were either hiding or had moved up to the valley and back.

Redpolls (and more Siskins) have moved into the area, with a few individuals sporadically and 10 seen by Clive on the 24th.

Three Peregrines were over the reservoir on 25th, seen by Clive, which were probably the local pair and a wondering bird.

On the 26th Ian had a Cetti's Warbler again at the reservoir, which is a different bird to the one further downriver in town (seen on the same day). Yesterday there was Chiffchaff singing at the reservoir and today Clive had 4, includng a singing bird.

15th Feb 2026: Curlew

The standout highlight for the last couple of weeks was Curlew seen Monday (9th) by Mark Ribbons in one of the flooded fields up the valley, along with some Teal, Wigeon and Shoveler. The flood water had receded by Friday and no ducks or waders or anything else of note were present.

Also notable on the 8th was a group of 13 Siskin that flew over the reservoir.

1st Feb 2026

It was fairly quiet this week, but the flooded fields up the valley added some wildfowl interest and a couple of year ticks.

In one of the flooded fields on Friday afternoon there were 98 Lapwing, 56 Teal, 11 Gadwall, 9 Wigeon and 3 Shoveler. On the Borrow Pit pool there was also a Pochard, which is not a common sight there. 

Also yesterday, there was a report of 3 Wigeon on the reservoir. 6 Siskin was the highlight of a brief visit this morning.

I think the year list is up to 75, but I have lost my list and need to re do it!

25th Jan 2026

There had not been much seen through the week but this morning there was a couple of new birds for the year, with 3 drake Pochard on the reservoir (amongst 17 Tufted Ducks and a Gadwall) and a Mistle Thrush at the back of the wood. There was also a Bullfinch near the entrance (quite a hard bird to get on patch now) and at least 5 Lapwings flew over. 

18th Jan 2026: Great White Egret

This week Clive added Great White Egret to the year list, with one flying over on Wednesday. There was also 2 Lapwing on the same day. 

Friday afternoon there were 22 Teal in the flooded fields up the valley and a single bird flew around the reservoir this morning. A few more common species were added to the year list but nothing else in particular.

11th Jan 2026: White-fronted Geese and Marsh Harrier!

It has been a great start to the year with some cracking species and really interesting counts recorded. 

On the 3rd JFT added White-fronted Goose to the yearlist, with 2 initially on the reservoir that flew off early and then another 4 (adults) that came in from high to the north-east and landed in the cattle field (later seen on the reservoir). Unfortunately, just one day birds. On the same day we also had a Great Black-backed Gull over and a flock of c.150 Lapwing over. The latter being part of a general movement over a few days, with several smaller flocks and a flock of c.40 Golden Plovers also seen.

This week there was some huge counts of Tufted Ducks, with 117 on the 8th and 143 (113 drakes) on 9th! I'm fairly certain these are record counts for the site. Oddly there was no other diving ducks with them and even more oddly, there was none yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning JFT had a group of 6 Crossbills go over north and this morning Clive had a cream crown Marsh Harrier come in from the west and fly off north (after getting mobbed by a Raven). 

Some other good birds already seen include Gadwall, Raven, Stonechat (2 pairs), Snipe, Jack Snipe, Peregrine and Yellowhammer.

I think the year list is already on 64, but I'll have a proper look towards the end of the month and make sure it's in line with the new Avilist taxonomic order and amended BOU list etc.  

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT (part of the 150 flock)

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

31st Dec 2025

It's the end of the year and, unfortunately, there was no late treats for us. On the 24th there was a nice selection of ducks with 8 Wigeon and 2 Gadwall present amongst the usuals, an adult Yellow-lgged Gull and the pair of Stonechats still. On the 28th a Chiffchaff was near the entrance and on the 29th there was 2 female Shovelers. 

The year list limped up to 113 which is a really poor total, the lowest for quite some time and the first time since 2017 we haven't got 120+. One really notable species we missed was Wheatear, but hopefully this is just an oddity with this year as it was a poor year generally it seemed. We seemed to have very few waders this year and didn't manage to connect with a few scarce birds like Arctic Tern, Sandwich Tern, Kittiwake and Common Scoter, which are certainly not garanteed but not terribly rare.

Despite that there were some really good records, with JFT adding Pink-footed Goose to the site list, a Marsh Harrier, a couple of Little Gulls, a Cuckoo, multiple Rock Pipits, more Great White Egrets this year than ever recorded before and a few records of Crossbills.

Hopefully next year is a bit better. Happy New Year and good birding!

21st Dec 2025

Generally quiet still over the last couple of weeks. There was a pair of Peregrines over on the 14th, a Blackcap on the 19th (JFT) and a Great White Egret over this morning (CP and JFT).

Hopefully there's a few more good birds before the end of the year. Happy Christmas!

7th Dec 2025

Highlights this week were a flyover Great White Egret, heading south-west on Friday morning, and this morning Clive had 2 Egyptian Geese. He also had a distant goose in flight that could have been the Pink-footed Goose, but unfortunately not able to confirm.

30th Nov 2025: Pink-footed Goose!!

Yesterday morning JFT found a PINK-FOOTED GOOSE in the cattle field! This is almost certainly the same one he saw a bit further south down the Cherwell valley last weekend. This incredible record is the first for the patch and a very good bird for the county. There was also a female Goldeneye on the reservoir and the pair of Stonechats.

Unfortunately, the Pink-footed Goose was not seen today around the reservoir or just north into the Cherwell valley. There was actually very few geese around at all and I expect they've moved to flooded areas down the valley. The Goldeneye was still on the reservoir and there was at least 3 Chiffchaffs on patch. I also noted at least four other Chiffchaffs near home and along the river up to the reservoir as well, so there's still a good number around passing through.

There was also a very intriguing record today from someone else looking for the goose, of 3 yellow-billed swans flying south towards Banbury. Unfortunately not seen well enough to identify but a good chance they flew over the patch.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

23rd Nov 2025

Back to being fairly quiet again this week, with Shoveler, Yellow-legged Gull, Marsh Tit and the pair of Stonechats the highlights. 

16th Nov 2025: Little Gulls

It had been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, with an irregular pair of Wigeon and the Marsh Tit the only interest. Then today after a strong north-easterly there was suddenly a increase of activity and some good birds in the mix. 

As I was walking up and paying attention to a passerine flock along the river, I wasn't paying attention to the large number of gulls flying over... when JFT had a Little Gull go high east and a flock of 1 Gadwall and 3 Wigeon fly around. We met up at the top end and we had a Snipe and a group of 13 Lapwing over. As JFT was walking back to the car park I could see him waving his arms about and there was another Little Gull! This one dropped in for a very brief moment and also headed off east. I heard Golden Plover calling somewhere above but we couldn't pick it out. A Mediteranean Gull went through south with another load of gulls and 2 Wigeon got harrassed by a/the pair of Peregrines as they came through.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT