18th Apr 2018: Grasshopper Warbler and Whitethroat

Wednesday morning I had the opportunity to get out fairly early (earlier than John for a change!). There was a Grasshopper Warbler reeling just to the east of the reservoir, in the scrubby vegetation east of the river. There was also three Wheatears along the western shore early one, but they were pushed around by dog walkers and we could only see two a little later alogn the fence through the cattle field. Other than that a single Lesser Whitethroat was the only bird of note.

At lunchtime John had our first Whitethroat of the year and several butterflies including an Orange Tip.

17th Apr 2018

A fairly quiet day today day with only two White Wagtails and a Jay noted by John.

16th Apr 2018: Lesser Whitethroat

Our first Lesser Whitethroat was singing this morning to the west of the reservoir, heard by John. I heard it later and it was still feeding there but not singing when John went back at lunch time. John also saw three Common Sandpipers, a Little Ringed Plover and a Peregrine.

15th Apr 2018: Spring migrants galore!

I apologise for the lack of postings recently, especially as we have been having a very good period of bird sightings... John's tenacious effort for working the patch has very much been rewarded. There have been quite a few things spotted in the last week or so, so I apologise if I have missed anything. All photos in this post are courtesy and copyright of John.

5th: John found four Greylag Geese and four Tufted Ducks at the reservoir, which were later joined by five Shovelers. Mike believes these were birds from the flooded valley that moved as the water receded. There was also a single Swallow that flew through.

7th: John and I had two House Martins, alongside several each of Swallow and Sand Martin, and heard our first Willow Warbler of the year. Kyle later confirmed there were at least two Willow Warblers along the river. 

9th: John found a drake Common Scoter, which only stayed for the day. 

10th: In the morning Mike and John saw our first Common Sandpiper of the year and a Redshank flew through calling. There was also a Redpoll still present, seen along the river. That evening John found our first (two) Yellow Wagtails of year.

11th: An adult Kittiwake flew through going east. 

12th: A stunning summer plumage Black-necked Grebe found by John was present this morning and stayed for two days, enjoyed by quite a few local and visiting birders. 

In the morning there was also at least three singing Willow Warblers, a Little Ringed Plover and a White Wagtail. Through the day a Common Sandpiper and at least four White Wagtails were seen and John Bowley reported a brief sighting of a Rock Pipit. 

13th: A Little Grebe was on the reservoir, alongside the Black-necked and a Great Crested. This is possibly the first time ever that three species of grebe have been at the reservoir at the same time?? A male Shoveler also flew through and there were two Common Sandpipers later in the day. The Black-necked Grebe was last seen late on the Friday evening and I assumed it moved that night. 

14th: Mike was out early and recorded our first Sedge Warbler of the year and a Common Sandpiper. I was out a little later and there was two Common Sandpipers and a single Greylag went over. The Willow Tit and a Jay were in the wood. The tit was actually quite vocal on the southern edge of the wood. A few Skylarks and a Meadow Pipit went over. 

This morning (15th) Steve and Colin saw a Little Ringed Plover, two Common Sandpipers at the reservoir and nine Tufted Ducks at the Borrow Pit. They also had at least six Herring Gulls go through south-east. This evening John and Mike recorded three Common Sandpipers, at least six male Blackcaps feeding together in the willows along the river, a Yellow Wagtail and a Curlew fly through. 

4th Apr 2018: Wheatear, Swallow & Blackcap

John: On Sunday, both Colin & Steve were out and about. Their sightings included Chiffchaff and Redpoll in the reservoir/wood area. Up in the Cherwell valley, there were 2 pairs of Teal around the floodwater & 2 singing Chiffchaff. The Borrow Pit held 2 Little Grebe & 5 Tufted Duck.

A drizzly lunchtime visit for me on Monday, yielded a few more migrants with a Swallow flying around the west side. A male Wheatear was sat on a post along the fence through the cattle field (below) and c6 Sand Martin had gone through by the time I had left.

Tuesday produced a couple of Sand Martin, Peregrine, 2 Siskin, 4 Chiffchaff along the river and a few lingering Redwing.

Despite some decent southerly winds and more showers, today failed to produce too much of interest. I did though come across a pair of Blackcaps, our first of the year, as well as 3 Chiffchaff and a couple of Redwing.

30th Mar 2018: Sand Martin

John: This week has seen some very wet weather, however as yet, this hasn't dragged down too much in the way of migrants. Chiffchaffs in particular seem very thin on the ground at the moment

Still, I did manage to clap eyes on a group of 3 Sand Martin on Tuesday. They didn't hang around for long at all, as they headed off up into the clouds and away to the north.

There's been quite a lot of Peregrine activity this week and most days I've seen 1, sometimes 2 drifting about. On Tuesday, the pair drifted relatively low, NE over the reservoir, with the female carrying a half eaten Feral Pigeon!

On Saturday, during a brief visit 4 Greylag Geese circled the reservoir and a Muntjac showed amazingly well by the entrance gate, feeding along the river.

26th Mar 2018: Redshank

John: A new bird to add to the year list appeared on Friday evening, with a surprisingly mute Redshank, which lingered to dusk. While I was watching it, a very vocal Snipe also zipped over. Both are less than frequent at the reservoir, although Snipe are relatively easy to encounter in the Upper Cherwell during the winter.

Mark located a Little Ringed Plover at the reservoir on Sunday and today, it or another was foraging along the western shore. I also heard a singing Chiffchaff in the rain on Saturday morning, while Mark had one or the same on Sunday afternoon too.

Other sightings of note in recent days have included a pair of Shoveler on Friday morning, Peregrine, the regular pair of Wigeon, up to 3 Lesser Redpoll and several Siskins in the wood.

22nd Mar 2018: Little Ringed Plover

John: Well a bit of a shock coming back to the snow having been with Gareth, birding in Morocco! However, at least the last couple of days haven't been quite so bracing.

So to the birds...well this week has seen a little bit of interest. The undoubted highlight to date, has been our first Little Ringed Plover of the season, a lovely male on a freezing cold Monday evening (19/03). Grimsbury seems to have a knack of producing Oxfordshire's first LRP of the year and I may be wrong but I think we've gained that accolade once again!

This morning (22/03) was very pleasant and sunny, bringing about a lot of bird activity. A pair of Sparrowhawks were displaying overhead, a couple of male Bullfinches were singing well from perches and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming in the wood. So some positive signs of spring!

Other birds of note included both Marsh & Willow Tit (having a right old squabble at one point!) & c20 Siskins in the wood plus a / the pair of Wigeon on the reservoir which I've been seeing daily since Tuesday. Willow, Marsh & Coal Tit from this morning below.

18th Mar 2018: Chiffchaff

Nice to be home to such beautiful spring weather...!

On Friday 9th Tim Clark had two Wigeon at the reservoir and twelve Tufted Ducks at the Borrow Pit pool. He also noted at least four Stonechats in the field to the south of the motorway and west of the canal. That is a very good number for here in recent years. Mark also had two Redpoll in the wood.

Saturday 10th, late morning, Tim recorded c.20 Siskin feeding in the alders along the edge of 

the reservoir and on the reservoir there just a single Little Grebe of note. A male Goosander flew in but did not stop. One Stonechat remained in the field along the canal and ten Tufted Duck and three Little Grebe were at the Borrow Pit.

Jon Bowley visited on the 11th and found our first singing Chiffchaff of the year. It was along the river and had later moved along to the edge of the woodland. The Willow Tit was in song and the Marsh Tit was also still in the woodland. The number of Tufted Duck at the Borrow Pit had increased to fifteen and there were sixteen Teal on the floodwater by the river in the valley. Two each of Skylark and Meadow Pipit flew over east / north-east.

On Wednesday 14th Mike found fourteen Black-tailed Godwits on the floodwater in the Upper Cherwell Valley. This is a fantastic find for the area! The area was also holding lots of gulls, corvids and Starlings. 

Today Mark was out and about and saw four Yellow-legged Gulls at the Borrow Pit and one at the reservoir. There was also twenty-five Tufted Ducks (20M/5F) at the Borrow Pit pool, which must be the highest count there to date and a very good count for the area now. Amongst the rest were three Redpoll in the woodland and six Song Thrush seen together along the reservoir path. 

I'll be away for work for two weeks now, so John will keep the blog updated as and when he can. See you in the Spring!

8th Mar 2018

There was just the one Dunlin remaining on Monday when John visited. There was also three Coots, which have stayed up until today. This morning I was hoping to catch up with the Marsh Tit seen recently, but the best I saw in the wood was three Redpolls and I heard a Jay.

John and I are off to Morocco tomorrow morning for a week. Please still send through any sightings and I will update when we are back. Hopefully there will be some Chiffchaffs singing by then!

4th Mar 2018: Dunlin and Gadwall

Friday afternoon Mark braved the snow to visit the reservoir and there were four Coot, five Tufted Ducks, two Wigeon and a Yellow-legged Gull. 

Snow pictures courtesy and copyright of Mark Ribbons

Colin was out Saturday morning and found a Dunlin, still four Coot, a pair of Wigeon, three Tufted Ducks and two Great Crested Grebes at the reservoir. There was also six Tufted Ducks and four Coot at the Borrow Pit pool. 

Later in the afternoon Mark had two Dunlin, three Wigeon, two Gadwall at the reservoir and two Wigeon, seven Tufted Ducks and five Little Grebes at the Borrow Pit pool. 

Picture (and ones below) courtesy and copyright of JFT

Sunday morning John had three Dunlin, two Gadwall, four Wigeon (two at the reservoir and two at the Borrow Pit pool), a Snipe in the channel by waterworks, Willow Tit in the wood and four Coot, a dead lapwing and five Little Grebe at the Borrow Pit pool.

Philip Walker visited in the afternoon and had a Red Kite circling over over to the west of the reservoir, eight Little Grebe and eight Tufted Ducks. He also had a sighting of a possible Woodcock up the valley but it flew behind trees before he could get a definitive identification, but the size, colour and flight were correct.

28th Feb 2018

Thanks to John for posting while I was away! I'm just catching up now, so hopefully I haven't missed much.

Philip Walker visited on Friday 23rd. In addition to John's post/sightings Philip also saw a few bits up at the Borrow Pit pool. There was four Little Grebes, six to eight Tufted Duck, a Peregrine flying over up the valley and a male Stonechat perched on the bullrushes.

On Saturday 24th Steve had a Little Grebe at the reservoir along with the now regular Stonechat and pair of Wigeon.

Dave Lowe and Tom Bedford travelled up on Sunday 25th in search of the Willow Tit, which they found, and also saw our first Marsh Tit of the year/winter. The two were associating with each other and could be our 'pair' that attempted to nest last year. Their visit produced some interesting comments on ID from Richard Broughton and Tom has written up their notes and Richards comments here. 

Monday lunch time John had four Redpolls in the woodland. The (a) Coot has returned, two Lapwing flew over and the very confiding Kestrel was around too. 

The cold snap appears to be causing a little movement of birds avoiding the harsher conditions elsewhere. Today before work John saw 31 Lapwing go over and there were 10 Tufted Ducks (7 drakes) at the reservoir and 15 Fieldfare in the cattle field. At lunch time he saw a further 29 go over, all south or south-east, and another 4 land at the reservoir in the evening. 

23rd Feb 2018

John: It is all pretty quiet at the reservoir right now as we experience the doldrums of winter. Spring is though gradually showing itself, with more and more signs that there is hope!

Still, there was at least something to look at, with both the pair of Wigeon and the 1st-winter male Stonechat seen on and off throughout the week.

There have also been up to 200 Black Headed Gulls roosting on the pontoon on several evenings. This produced the highlight of the week, with a German-ringed Black Headed Gull - AF400. Even more interesting, was that this bird has been seen by Gareth before, not this winter, but back on 5th November 2015! See here

This perhaps shows an incredible faithfulness to certain wintering sites and an interesting insight into how gulls move about.

This inspired me to get round to finding out the info of two other ringed Black Headed Gulls from back in October. I have already had a reply on one (2SKL), which was rung at Pitsea Landfill Site in Essex, by the North Thames Gull Group back on 3rd December 2016. See here

We're just going into a very cold spell over the next few days, so fingers crossed we get a bit of a change up of birds...perhaps some different wildfowl if we're lucky!

11th Feb 2018

There was obvious a bit of movement of Great Crested Grebes this week, as John saw eight on Monday but there was only four again by the end of the week. John also saw a pair of Wigeon on Tuesday and a Lesser Redpoll on Thursday. I assume the Wigeon were the same birds we saw on Saturday too, so they may have been lingering in the valley. Also on Saturday, I had a Peregrine go over, a Coot and the two Lesser Redpoll in the wood. On Sunday George Best saw the Willow Tit and the two Redpolls were in the wood still.

All photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

04th Feb 2018

It has been a pretty quiet week to be completely honest. Steve saw a drake Goosander on Thursday. This morning the Willow Tit was in the wood being fairly vocal and there were at least two Lesser Redpolls. The Stonechat is still along the western reservoir fence.