11th Jan 2020

I had a walk around with John this morning. To be honest not any huge changes or big news, but the was still a Little Egret and a Greylag Goose up the valley.

10th Jan 2020

I had a good walk around this afternoon. It was a lovely sunny day and a pleasant walk, but unfortunately very little change bird wise. House Sparrow and Kingfisher were new for the year though. I stayed for the gull roost, but only 17 Black-headed Gulls arrived by 4:20 when I decided to give up and go home!

5th Jan 2020: Whooper Swans!

This morning was my first real chance to have a proper walk around the whole patch, along with Clive. It was really good and we recorded 51 species on patch.

At the reservoir we had Siskin fly over and a Jay in the wood. The best birds were further up the valley though. There were two Stonechats around the borrow pit pool (which have been around for a while now). I was scanning though the ducks when we finally realised the two swan at the back of the pool were not Mute Swans! Unfortunately just after we realised they were flushed by a passing dog walker. We got a good enough view to confirm they were Whooper Swans but unfortunately my chance to get any pictures was rather brief... well that's my excuse anyway! There was also a Little Egret flying around, a Wigeon on the pool and two Snipe in the usual wet field. Later in the afternoon there was three Wigeon flying around over the reservoir but they didn't land while I was there.

4th Jan 2020

This morning John had a few bits new for the year including Greylag Goose, Red Kite and Bullfinch.

3rd Jan 2020

A few more bits added to the year list today, mainly stuff from the woodland including Marsh Tit.

2nd Jan 2020: Pochard

Dylan was up at the reservoir today and recorded a drake Pochard. Nice to get that on the year list early in the year.

New Year Sightings

Happy New Year! Let's hope it's a good one.

New years day was a fairly easy and steady start of the year list. I went up for a quick walk around at lunchtime and notched up 28 species. Nothing terribly exciting really but a pleasant stroll.

I will update the year list ASAP. Please send over news of any sightings if I miss them or as new sightings are recorded as the year goes on.

End of 2019

It was a rather slow end to the year tbh, until John visited at the end of the month (that guy has a knack of turning stuff up anytime!).

On the 27th he had three Great Black-backed Gulls go over.

On the 28th he had a Shelduck circle over before flying off north, 49 Lapwing over and then two drake Pintail over. Site rarity to end the year!

All photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

Thanks for all the records this year!

8th Dec 2019

Clive had two Goosanders at the reservoir this morning. John was up in the afternoon but there wasn't much else around.

1st Dec 2019: Med Gull

This afternoon John had a Mediterranean Gull flew through. Oddly our first record of the year at a fairly unusual time of year for this site. There was also a drake Goosander. 

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

30th Nov 2019: Goldeneye

John continued a run of good birds for the end of the month. Five, yes five, species of duck were at the reservoir... The best being a very smart pair of Goldeneye, the first here for a few years. There was also singles of Gadwall and Pochard, as well as the usual Mallards and Tufted Ducks.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

24th Nov 2019

This morning Clive had two Egyptian Geese again before they flew off to the north. It's possible they are lingering in the wider area.

19th Nov 2019

Photos courtesy and copyright of Dave Fuller

17th Nov 2019

Adrian checked the reservoir early morning and found a Little Egret settled in the flooded cattle field, but unfortunately not much else. In the Upper Cherwell Valley the flood water had mostly gone but Mike still found 40 Wigeon and 16 Teal in the fields. John also had two Stonechat by the Borrow Pit, nine Snipe (6 over & 3 in the usual wet field), c.15 Lapwing, a Jay & several Siskin.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

16th Nov 2019: Great Whites!

Following some heavy flooding in the last few days I was unsure whether to bother going up to the reservoir or not, knowing that the access road was completely flooded yesterday. Anyway, I decided to get my wellingtons on and give it a go and I'm very glad I did.

I'd walked up the eastern side and just about managed to get around a very flooded woodland and was just making my way back to the reservoir along the southern side of the wood when I bumped in the John. I was disappointed with the lack of birds so far and we stood chatting, catching up on general life. A Yellowhammer flew over, which was a patch year tick for John and I think he'd have been happy with that but what happened in the next few minutes was completely unexpected!

As we were chatting and scanning the gulls, covids and Starlings in the flooded cattle field, I picked up two Egyptian Geese flying in that landed in the field. This was a patch tick for me and only the second site record, plastic as they may be it was a nice sight. Just as we'd finished getting a few photos of those, I picked up two large white birds flying towards us from the south. My brain at first dismissed them as swans but then I then did a double take as my brain caught up with my eyes and I might have uttered an expletive! Two Great White Egrets were flying over north-west before turning more northerly. They didn't stop, but with the amount of flood water around I thought they may have settled up the valley. Unfortunately there was no further sign of them when I and a few others looked. When I got back to the reservoir the geese were gone too. A flurry of activity for five mins - proving that sometimes its all just lucky timing...

Whilst checking the U.C.V. later in the day, Mike had five Shoveler and thirty-four Wigeon in the flooded fields.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT