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.

Friday, 17 April 2015

17th Apr 2015

I managed two visits to Grimsbury today. Early morning there were at least five Sedge Warblers singing from the scrub along the river, one Common Sandpiper and one Little Ringed Plover. By the time I left a Sand Martin and two Swallows were zipping around but not a lot else had come in.

John managed to see a Jay, which is notable as they are normally only seen here in the autumn and winter. Alison Parry also saw two Common Gulls, which is also notable as there hasn't been any around for some time now and there probably wont be many more until they return in the autumn.

Late afternoon I was happy to see a Curlew fly over north east. One had been seen earlier in the year and Mike Pollard knows of some in the Cherwell Valley but I hadn't seen any here till today. There were three Little Ringed Plovers, calling constantly and it appeared to be two males displaying to a female bird. The hirundines had built up in number through the day and mostly Swallows (c. 30) there was also a few House Martins and Sand Martins with them.

Derek Lane emailed me this picture of a Heron along the river that had managed to catch a Pike. It is of a fairly substantial size for the bird but managed to get it down!

Courtesy and copyright of Derek Lane
Courtesy and copyright of Derek Lane
If anyone can identify this plant for me I'd be grateful. It is growing on the wall near the entrance to the reservoir. It might be a stray cultivated plant but I'm interested to know what it is.

Ivy Leaved Toadflax (Thank you, Stoneshank)
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