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

12th Nov 2019

It's been a very quiet start to the month so far. On the 9th John had a Fieldfare, two Coot and eight Great Crested Grebe. This morning there was equally not a lot going on, but there are loads of gulls in the U.C.V. The Marsh Tit was very vocal in the wood. At the reservoir there was only one Coot and two Great Crested Grebes and no Little Grebe. I assume they left during or around the various firework displays going on nearby.