It had been a pretty quiet week really without much news, until I bumped into John the dog walker today! He told me he and another dog walker had a Cuckoo calling from the wood early Monday morning. Both Mike Pollard and John were also out Monday morning so it must have moved on or gone quiet by then.
Otherwise there hasn't been much of note, a Yellow Wagtail flew over today and there was minimum of 3 Hairy Hawkers.
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
Monday late morning I had a walk around and got our first Reed Warbler of the year, singing from scrub along the river bank. I also had a couple of sightings of a Peregrine flying nearby and then over the reservoir.
On the 11th John had a Dunlin, Little Ringed Plover, Common Sandpiper and c.40 Swifts - our first good numbers of Swifts this year.
Yesterday I headed up later to look for 'other' wildlife and was rewarded with the spectacle of numerous Demoiselles that have now emerged. There were 15+ male Beautiful and 4+ male Banded with many females. When I was watching them I spotted a hawker hunting over the river and a hawker in May can only really be Hairy Dragonfly! There were actually at least two and these are the first record for here and as it turns out the first confirmed recent record in the Banbury area. The last confirmed records being from Anthony Brownett in 1959 from Wroxton Abbey (where Steve Holliday actually recorded one today after seeing the Grimsbury ones). I also saw 4+ Large Red Damselflies, a probable Azure Damselfly and a Grass Snake.
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Firstly, some late news of an Oystercatcher from last week (w/c 25th) that I heard about through Adrian B and I later found out was seen by dog walker John.
On Wednesday the conditions looked great but the only birds of note were 3 Common Sandpipers and Garden Warbler seen by Mike Pollard and a Yellow Wagtail seen by Ian Rowe.
There were 4 Common Sandpipers and 2 Yellow Wagtails on the 6th but only 2 Common Sandpipers on the 7th when there was also a Wheatear in the cattle field.
Today was the B.O.S long day count and we were graced by a pair of Shelducks (the first ones we've had for a few years), a flyover Little Egret, a Little Ringed Plover and 3 Common Sandpipers. There was also at least 3 Garden Warblers around. Frustratingly, John and Mike also briefly saw what was either a Whimbrel or Curlew fly over the reservoir and up the valley. Not well enough for them to be sure of the ID (John's fairly sure it was Whimbrel) and not seen by Clive and I up the valley doing the count!
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT (earlier in the week) |
John was back out for more again this morning and found a Grasshopper Warbler reeling to the east of the river near the northern end of the reservoir. After I'd joined him and heard it we saw a Wheatear in the cattle field and a male Whinchat (so different to yesterday's bird) fly from the ditch up to the western side of the reservoir. There was also 3 Common Sandpipers, 4 Yellow Wagtails and at some point a Little Ringed Plover dropped in.
Clare Curnow later confirmed that there were 2 Wheatears. Another great morning.
An incredible day for the patch today! The star of the show was a Bar-tailed Godwit that John saw fly in at c.6:45 and stayed until c.8:20. That would have been good enough really, but by that time John had already seen a Dunlin, 4 Common Sandpipers, a Common Tern go through, a Mistle Thrush and a Little Grebe and Adrian T had found a female Whinchat!
There was obviously an increase in warblers too, with c.10 Sedge Warblers noted and a few more Lesser Whitethroat. Several extra observers obviously helped with the day's sightings, with Steve and Mark seeing Swift over and finding a Wheatear in the cattle field and Sandra and Adrian B finding a female Redstart. The chats were elusive, but they were all seen again at least once more later on through the morning.
The Dunlin stayed till the evening (despite a lot of human activity through the day), with at least 2 of the Common Sandpipers and 2 Yellow Wagtails.
Some late news from Friday 29th of a male Brambling that stopped in briefly on the western perimeter fence and dropped down to drink before flying off again, reported by one of the dog walkers (John).
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
Thursday morning John had 3 Yellow Wagtails and found our first Swift of the year and a female Brambling foraging with Chaffinches along the river. The Brambling was still around in the evening and was great to see as they are usually only a fly-over species here.
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| Photos courtesy and copy right of JFT |
On Friday evening I found our first Wheatear of the year (species 100 for the patch year list) and had Common Sandpiper and 3 Yellow Wagtails.
Saturday I headed out late morning with Steve H, mainly to try and find Large Red Damselfly (but we didn't find any). We had a Garden Warbler along the river but not much else bird wise. Plenty of butterflies though with Orange Tips, Small Tortoiseshells, Green-viened Whites, Brimstones, Peacocks and Speckled Woods all seen.
Today there was Common Sandpiper early on and 2 Greylag Geese flew over. Hirundine numbers built up through the day and 3 Yellow Wagtails dropped in by lunchtime. In the evening there were 3 Swifts with the mixed flock of c.70 hirundines.
Ian was out early this morning and had our first Garden Warbler of the year. A little later I had a single Yellow Wagtail but not a lot else.
After the painfully quiet weekend, where birds seemed to be turning up everywhere except for Grimsbury, we have had a better couple of days.
Yesterday evening I had a Redstart along the western path, but only a very brief glimpse as it flushed from the path side scrub to the ditch in the cattle field out of sight. There was also a pick up in Yellow Wagtails, with 5 present by late evening.
This evening John had a Whimbrel! A frustratingly rare sighting at Grimsbury and typically it only landed for a few minutes before it decided to move on. There was also a House Sparrow, which I think is new for the year (but if it isn't I'd previously forgotten to add it to the year list).
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
The rest of the bank holiday weekend and this week was fairly quiet in comparison, but we still managed to add a couple of new species to the year list.
On the Monday Kev had 2 Common Sandpipers and on the 20th had another White Wagtail.
On Friday I had our first 2 Lesser Whitethroats of the year, one along the river and one along the canal. Another 2 Common Terns also dropped in for a short period of time and a Common Sand around.
This morning John had a Little Egret fly over and a Common Sandpiper. A little later in the morning I had 3 Yellow Wagtails go over.
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| Courtesy and copyright of JFT |
Ian Rowe had another 2 White Wagtails on the 11th and John had a mixed singing Willow Warbler. On the 12th Mike P found our first Yellow Wagtail of the year with a White Wagtail, also good numbers of Willow Warbler (5), Blackcap (12), Swallow (8) and Sand Martins (30+).
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| Courtesy and copyright of Mike Pollard |
Ian had a Common Tern briefly on the 13th, perched on a buoy before it flew north.
On the 14th a Common Sandpiper was at the reservoir and our first Whitethroat of the year was singing at the northern end. There was also 2 Redstarts (1 male) along the western side and then in the hedgerow through the cattle field.
Good Friday, was good... with our first 2 Greylag Geese of the year, 2 Whitethroats and the 2 Redstart still. Up in the valley around the Borrow Pit pool I had our first 2 Sedge Warblers, 2 Whitethroats and a Yellowhammer flew over. A Sedge Warbler was also picked up along the river later in the day.
However, Saturday was much better! A Great White Egret (2nd patch record) flew over the reservoir south early morning. Generally there were more warblers around with several each of Sedge and Whitethroat across the whole patch, but we couldn't pick out anything new amongst them. On the way out, lingering to search for Redstarts that weren't there, we were rewarded with 3 terns flying in - which turned out to be a Sandwich Tern with 2 Common Terns.
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
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On the 28th I was watching several Buzzards and a few Red Kites cruising around and picked up a Peregrine and Raven go over north. Mike Pollard had our first Swallow of the year on the 30th and 6 Wigeon at the reservoir.
Mark Ribbons had another 3 Swallow and 2 Sand Martins on the 31st, which were followed by several more over the weekend. We also had our Skylark and Linnets of the year.
On the 2nd there was another Willow Warbler at the reservoir and 2 Shoveler with 9 Gadwall at the Borrow Pit pool. On the Sunday we had three sightings of Peregrine, including what I think was two females having a squabble right over the reservoir.
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
Adrian B was out on the 4th and had 2 Mandarin fly over south, Sandra had our first (4) House Martins of the year on the 7th and Mike P found our first Common Sandpiper of the year on the 8th.
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| Courtesy and copyright of Wally Warburton |
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| Courtesy and copyright of Mike Pollard |
On the 9th Adrian Tysoe had an early morning Redstart and later 4 House Martins were seen. Several eager people were looking for the Redstart on the 10th but unfortunately it was not still present. However, John picked up a Green Sandpiper flying over north.
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
Friday evening John found our first Little Ringed Plover of the year (a female) and then on Saturday morning found our second (a male)!
Saturday morning there was also 5-6 Chiffchaffs around and a drake Goosander flew over south-east.
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
A bit of change this week with a Red-crested Pochard on Friday. I saw it late afternoon but later found out it had been seen in the morning by Michael Hewitt.
Unfortunately it was gone by the morning but Adrian Tysoe saw 6 Wigeon and our first Blackcap of the year.
February was a long quiet month to be honest! Mike Pollard had a Peregrine over on the 15th but that was the only notable bird (I think, correct me if I'm wrong!).
There were good numbers of Siskins too which is always nice, that made a great amount of noise on some of the nicer sunnier days.
Otherwise it was largely the same birds throughout.
