31st Mar 2019: House Martin

The Whooper Swan in the Upper Cherwell Valley remains the main interest and has been seen daily since Wednesday. On Friday evening there was also 40 (!) Tufted Ducks on the Borrow Pit pool.

Today
A big passage of hirundines today with 300+ early morning including a House Martin and several Swallows (per JFT) also a Lapwing and a Greylag Goose.

Upper Cherwell Valley

A further c.100 Sand Martins late morning (per Jim Craike)
Whooper Swan still in field with Mutes this afternoon (per Dylan Parry-Davies)

27th Mar 2019: Whooper Swan!

John: A largely quiet day with the now routine male Little Ringed Plover again in situ around the reservoir all day.

Bumping into local regular Jim, he mentioned that someone had showed him a picture of what appeared to be a Whooper Swan, present on the Borrow Pit back on Sunday.

Now it's always worth following up reports like this and so I decided to scoot up the canal to the Borrow Pit after work, particularly as it was such a clear evening. It was a bit of a long shot but you never know!

On arrival, there were no Swans in sight, although there was a good local count of around 25 Tufted Duck. Some 15 minutes later, a group of swans flew in from the nearby fields and amazingly, amongst them was indeed an adult Whooper Swan!

A very scarce bird in this area, so a great thing to see. Let's hope it hangs on a few more days, before it heads off back to Iceland to breed.

22nd Mar 2019: Wheatear

John: This morning began with a bit more oomph to the wind and with it coming from the south / south west, I was hopeful of finding something on my walk round. I was in luck, with the year's first Wheatear, a smart male along the East side of the reservoir, loosely associating with a few Pied Wagtail. A look this evening revealed it to be still about, this time on the west side.

Other things noted today, included a single Sand Martin flying around early on and another (or same?) male Little Ringed Plover. There were also several Chiffchaff in song, completing a thoroughly spring feeling to it all!

19th Mar 2019

Sorry for the lack of posts. We've actually had six new species new to the year list since my last post, which is pretty good really considering the time of the year. I had forgotten to add Great Spotted Woodpecker and they have been really active recently, drumming and calling regularly. 

I heard my first singing Chiffchaff on the 9th and Reed Buntings have been singing from the scrub along the river and the hedge in the cattle field too. We also had  a couple of Great Black-back Gulls over one morning that week, but I forget which day!

On the evening of the 12th John had our first Little Ringed Plover of the year. We think this is the first one of the year recorded in Oxfordshire. 

Sunday morning (17th) John and I had our first five Sand Martins of the year over the reservoir. They were fairly mobile but kept coming back to the reservoir.

This morning there was at least three Chiffchaff singing and John had our first Skylark of the year over. 

Both photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

03rd Mar 2019

A pretty quiet week, but the anticipation of spring migrants is building rapidly. Interestingly, John has been seeing Chiffchaffs this week; one on Wednesday, two on Friday and three yesterday. These are the first ones seen since the one Colin saw on new years day. It would be incredibly early for these to be new migrants rather than birds that have wintered in the UK, but there have been other migrants arriving too so it wouldn't be too surprising if they are.

24th Feb 2019: Curlew

On the 19th at lunch time John had two Peregrines, a Red Kite and two Buzzard all thermalling together over the reservoir.

John also saw a Curlew on the 21st. It was at the reservoir but flew off north shortly after he saw it.

All photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

7th Feb 2019: Duck(s)!

The start of the week saw a decrease in dabbling ducks but an increase in diving ducks.

On Monday John reported there was still seven Wigeon, twenty-one Tufted Ducks (great for here) and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. By Tuesday there was an impressive twenty-nine Tufted Ducks (come on, that is impressive for here!) and a female Pochard flew around over the reservoir but continued on south-east. Later on Steve also saw a drake Goosander with the Tufted Ducks. The same Yellow-legged Gull was also still around.

Wednesday morning John reported the Tufted Ducks were down to only twelve. Which to be fair, is still a good number for the reservoir these days. It's odd to think people used to regularly report much higher numbers overwintering here.

3rd Feb 2019

A pretty cold end to the week and it bought in a good amount of waterbirds to the reservoir. Well, good for here anyway!

On Friday (1st) John found our first Teal of the year with four Wigeon. On Saturday (2nd) the Teal was present again, now with 11 Wigeon (a decent number for here) and a Coot.

31st Jan 2019

A very cold day today, so much so most of the reservoir surface was frozen leaving some open water only at the northern end. That where all the birds were and where John found four Wigeon and nine Tufted Ducks this morning.

30th Jan 2019

A late update from Colin regarding sightings from the afternoon on Friday (25th) confirmed a drake Pochard was seen at the Borrow Pit. He also pointed out I hadn't added Buzzard to the year list! That puts the year list up to 64 so far, which is a fantastic start to the year.

Highlights this morning were a pair of Peregrines over and three Red Kites together over the Lockheed Close area. At least one Marsh Tit still in the wood.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

27th Jan 2019

It's been a fairly quiet week again with very little to report.

Last Friday (18th) and this Wednesday (23rd) John had a Yellow-legged Gull at the reservoir.

Thursday (24th) John had a drake Wigeon at the Reservoir and on Friday (25th) Mike had two Marsh Tits in the wood. The latter pretty much confirming my sighting of two the other day.

This morning there were four Wigeon (three drakes) at the reservoir and a Marsh Tit and two Jays in the wood. 

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

17th Jan 2019

John and I were out this morning. Nothing new to report but a near adult Yellow-legged Gull was at the reservoir harassing the Cormorants (32 this morning) and Black-headed Gulls.

In the woodland there was Marsh Tit (just the one bird) and Sparrowhawks displaying again. I thought I heard a Chiffchaff calling but that turned out to be a Great Tit doing a pretty good impression!

16th Jan 2019

Courtesy and copyright of Dave Fuller

Lunch time today John had two Mistle Thrushes fly over north. First of the year and good to get on the list.

13th Jan 2019

It was a fairly quiet week really. John had a Red Kite and Peregrine over on Tuesday.

On Wednesday John had eight Greylag Geese (a good count for here), a drake Tufted Duck and a Siskin in the morning. There was also pair of Sparrowhawks displaying over the wood.

Greenfinch was new to the year list on Friday morning when four were flying around over the cattle fields. Also Friday morning there was 38 (surely a patch record!) Cormorants at the reservoir and a Marsh Tit in the wood. It was joined very briefly by a second bird, that I could not identify as Marsh or Willow but my gut feeling was it was a second Marsh Tit.

All photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

6th Jan 2019

Colin was out this afternoon and recorded our first Yellow-legged Gull of the year. There was an adult at the Borrow Pit pool at around 3 pm in amongst a good number of gulls, also including at least 10 Herring gulls.

Also of local interest, an adult Yellow-legged Gull was also recorded at the cattle sheds in Chacombe at around the same time (possibly the same bird) and at the Boddington roost an adult Caspian Gull and a 2CY (first winter) Yellow-legged Gull were recorded (https://northantsbirds.com/latest-reports/).