21st Jan 2024

Quite a cold week with most of the reservoir being frozen over by Friday but thawing out again over the weekend. 

Friday afternoon there were 52 Tufted Duck and a single drake Gadwall on the reservoir making use of the small area of ice free water. Up the valley I heard the (I assume the same) Cetti's Warbler singing by the river and there was at least 7 Snipe along the river.

Mark found a Yellow-legged Gull stood on the ice at the reservoir on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday our first Greenfinch of the year was along the river.

14th Jan 2024

Following the flooding last week the river level has gone very low again, even lower than it was at the end of last year. The freshly exposed mud under the railway bridge had fresh signs of Otter.

On Wednesday there was a little bit of activity and a couple of new birds with Kingfisher, Chiffchaff, Sparrowhawk, Raven and 13+ Siskins. Typically, some of these were birds we couldn't find last Sunday on the short day count!

John had a/the Goosander on Thursday and it was around again today. Also seen today were 64 Greylag Geese at the reservoir and then up the valley, Pheasant, Woodcock, 22 Snipe, 5 Gadwall at the Borrow Pit pool and 5 Lapwing up the valley.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

7th Jan 2024: A bit wet!

Dawn broke on New Year's Day with the patch (and a lot of other places) flooded. It wasn't too high to get in with wellington boots and a bit of care but some of the pathways around the wood (near the river especially) were too deep to walk along, so I accessed the Upper Cherwell Valley from the Gateway/M&S car park. A good number of birds seen for the first day, including Siskins, a Chiffchaff, a Stonechat, a drake Pintail, 2 Wigeon and a Snipe. A flock of birds passed over really high going south that JFT and I thought were most likely Golden Plover but we couldn't say for definite.

Wednesday morning the flooding was even worse and access to the reservoir not possible in the morning so I went up the valley but Ian managed a walk round in the afternoon. I added 5 Teal and 3 Lesser Redpoll to the year list and Ian had a drake Goosander on the Reservoir, which Adrian T also saw on Thursday.

This morning Clive and I were out and had a really good look around the patch, as part of the B.O.S. Short Day Count of SP44. We had a couple of new birds for the year list with a single Great Black-backed Gull over twice (possibly two birds) and a Lapwing in one of the fields that was still holding some flood water. Other notable sightings on patch were 5 Great Crested Grebes on the reservoir, 2 Gadwall on the Borrow Pit pool, 3 Wigeon, c.40 Snipe in one wet field and 2 Stonechat. Out of patch a Peregrine in town and a Goosander at Wroxton were good birds to get but there was not a lot else really.

Yesterday afternoon one of my friends took this overhead shot as the plane he was on passed over on the approach to Heathrow. This would have been at around 5500 m and a lot higher than most migratory birds would be flying over, but an interesting perspective of the patch and the surrounding area.

Courtesy and copyright of Allan Jones