27th Apr 2022: Garden Warbler

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.

26th Apr 2022: Whimbrel!

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).

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

24th Apr 2022

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.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

16th Apr 2022: Sandwich Tern!

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+).

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. 

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

10th Apr 2022: Even more early spring migrants!

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.

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.

Courtesy and copyright of Wally Warburton

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.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

27th Mar 2022: more early spring migrants

On the 14th there was a male Little Ringed Plover in the evening and Clare Curnow was out on the 15th and had a Peregrine over.

On the 20th Kev Heath had our first Sand Martin  of the year and on the 22nd Ian Rowe had a White Wagtail.

Adrian Tysoe had a good morning on the 24th with a Curlew over and our first Willow Warbler of the year along the river. On the 25th Kev had a pair Gadwall two pairs of Wigeon.

This morning I had at least 4 blackcaps singing around the reservoir and wood and double figures of Chiffchaff.

13th Mar 2022: LRP and Goosander

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.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

6th Mar 2022: R-c Pochard and Blackcap

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. 

Feb 2022

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. 

31st Jan 2022: Wigeon

Mike Pollard closed out January with our first record of Wigeon for the year.

30th Jan 2022

It's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks.  The Chiffchaff has been seen a couple of times in different places. On the 23rd Clive had 6 Gadwall on the Borrow Pit and Mike Pollaord had them again on the 26th as well as 2 Stonechat along the flood aleviation bund.

16th Jan 2022: Pintails

On Tuesday Mark Ribbons had a pair of Bullfinch (new for the year list), Raven and 5 Gadwall at the Borrow Pit.

Kev Heath was out on Thursday, in fantastic still and fine weather, and found 3 Pintail (1 drake) on the reservoir and Chiffchaff in the wood (both new for the year).

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

This morning was fairly quiet, but there was at around 25 Siskins with a group of c.20 and then a few other individuals and small groups around too.

9th Jan 2022: Egyptian Goose

Most of the week there has been the usual species. On Thursday a Snipe flushed up from the cattle field as a jogger went by, which is a fairly uncommon place for them to be.

Today I took part in the B.O.S. short day count (some info. here ) with Clive. Naturally, this included the Grimsbury patch and we added a few new species to the year list. The highlight being an Egyptian Goose that flew over south and other species were 4 Gadwall at the Borrow Pit pool and a Kingfisher along the canal. This brings the Grimsbury year list up 64 which is fairly good for this early in the year. 

3rd Jan 2022: New Year Birding

Over the long weekend a few people managed to get out and get started on the Grimsbury 2022 list. Unfortunately, the Red-crested Pochards decided not to hang around.

On Saturday it was steady going with mostly the usual species around, but a group of 10 Ravens over West and a flock of 16 Lapwings over the UCV were good birds to get early on. In the afternoon Mark Ribbons also added Peregrine to the year list. 

On Sunday there was little change, but Clive did see two groups of Lapwings over the UCV - totalling c.250 birds. 

This morning John and I had a good stomp around. Before I got there John had seen 2 Great Black-backed Gulls over the reservoir and a Lesser Redpoll in with the Siskins. The main interest was again in the 'snipe field' where we had 4 Common Snipe, 2 Jack Snipe, a Woodcock, 2 Stonechat and a Peregrine over.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

31st Dec 2021: Grimsbury Wetlands

John and I had a good trudge around the patch on Tuesday morning, with the main aim being to plug a few gaps in the year list and visit some corners we tend to miss out on our usual visits. As it turns out it was a very successful morning with three new birds for the year and one that got away...

Walking up to the reservoir John spotted 53 Lapwing circling over (which I assume came up from the cattle field) and then he quickly added that there was a small wader with them which turned out to be a Dunlin. There was also three Gadwall on the reservoir. We had very frustrating views of a bird that we both thought must have been a Merlin, flying over and then dropping low towards Hanwell Fields, but we only saw it from behind and flying away from us so can't be totally sure!

In the valley we had a good search of the 'snipe field' and soon we had seen 8+ Common Snipe and the main target a Jack Snipe. As we were searching John heard a Water Rail calling from the reeds near the river, a very good bird for patch and the first record since 2015. John also caught glimpse a bird flying around he thought was Woodcock and then later on we both had good views of two different Woodcock.
We did have a look around the Borrow Pit pool too, but it was very quiet with only a few gulls in the general area.

Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT

On Wednesday Clive found a pair of Red-crested Pochard on the reservoir, which were also present yesterday and today. Another good addition to the year list. Later in the afternoon Wednesday I had a flock of c.20 Greylag Geese fly over the UCV, a good number for this species locally.

Courtesy and copyright of Edwin Barson

Courtesy and copyright of Kyle Smith

There wasn't much else around today, but there were 8-9 Siskins along the river and a Lesser Redpoll flew over the wood. 

The four year ticks in the last week have taken the patch year list up to 122. There's been some good records again and the bird of the year probably comes down to Cattle Egret (a patch first) or Bar-tailed Godwit (the first record since 1974). On the basis of rarity I was inclined to go with Bar-tailed Godwit, but a couple of others went with Cattle Egret. So Cattle Egret it is, although I assume we'll be seeing more Cattle Egrets over the coming years than Bar-tailed Godwit!

Special mentions should also go to the flyover Hawfinch and the Caspian Gulls we had this autumn. 

Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for the records, photos or just having a look. All the best for 2022!