22nd Oct 2015

I was able to make the most of a free day today and had a good walk around this morning and this afternoon. This morning there was far more activity with Redwings feeding in the trees along the river and Siskins in the wood. There were two Grey Wagtails along the river and a a Mink scat and Otter spraint were both under the railway bridge. A fairly decent sized tit flock was in the wood with at least one Chiffchaff with them also Goldcrests and Treecreepers. The Willow Tit was in the middle of the wood, in it's now usual area. As I exited a Pheasant ran out of the scrub and over towards the river, not headline news but also not a common bird here. Back at the reservoir a Lapwing flew over and circled for a while before landing on the pontoon. It didn't stay long and left to the north. There was also four Common Gulls around.

In the afternoon, I had a more extensive walk around and went up the valley too. However, there was not much around. There was far less activity around the reservoir and wood with very little of note. In the Upper Cherwell Valley there were four Common Gulls at the Borrow Pit pool but not a lot else.

Mark Ribbons got these photos of a gull that looked familiar, and I think I'd seen it earlier in the day. The general consensus is that it is most likely a 2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull but it is very similar to some birds we saw earlier in the year and had mistakenly identified as juvenile Yellow-legged Gull. I had told Mark that this is probably a Yellow-legged until I was corrected (sorry Mark), it is worth scrutinising these birds a bit more closely!

Courtesy and copyright of Mark Ribbons

Courtesy and copyright of Mark Ribbons