21st Mar 2024: GREY PARTRIDGE?!

The start of the week delivered some more good quality birds, but with the wind switching to mostly northerlies and (mostly) clear skies this week was a bit quieter.

Monday started off with Ian finding a Sandwich Tern, which like the previous weeks' Kittiwakes and Arctic Terns it didn't hang around long. There was also Common Sandpiper and 2 Little Ringed Plovers.

I had an Osprey fly through Tuesday morning that, being harassed by gulls and corvids, flew north-west pretty quickly. There was also another Redstart along the river, a singing male this time. In the evening John found an absolute patch mega, a Grey Partridge! in the cattle field. This is such a scarce bird locally now and a very odd record for the reservoir, with the last one (that I know of) being from February 1995. 

From the middle to the end of the week it was much quieter but there were 2 Common Sandpipers most days, hirundines around, and a few Sedge Warblers and Whitethroats. Today there was a Lesser Whitethroat up by the Borrow Pit pool and a Siskin over the wood.

Partridge courtesy and copyright of JFT

14th Apr 2024: Kittiwakes and Arctic Terns

A really good week on patch with the outstanding highlights being 2 Kittiwakes found by Ian on Tuesday morning and 2 Arctic Terns found by JFT in the evening on the same day. This is possibly the first record of multiple Kittiwakes for the patch. 

Other highlights were Mistle Thrush, Sedge Warbler, and Wheatear all new for the year on Monday, as well as a male Redstart and Common Sandpiper still. 

On Tuesday there was a male Redstart still, a Peregrine over, a Yellow Wagtail, Sedge Warbler and 2 Little Ringed Plovers.

On Wednesday Ian had a Curlew over and there was 2 Common Sandpipers, Redstart, Yellow Wagtail, and several Willow Warblers.

Thursday the first Whitethroat of the year was seen, a Redstart still, a Yellow Wagtail over, Little Ringed Plover and Common Sandpiper. 

A Grasshopper Warbler just to the north of the woodland (heard from the canal towpath) was new for the year on Saturday, but otherwise quiet except for a good number of butterflies.

Today Mark had the same, or another, Grasshopper Warbler in one of the fields between the reservoir and the M40, and the first Lesser Whitethroat of the year. There was also 4 Lesser Redpolls over, Siskin over, and at least 4 Sedge Warblers and 2 Whitethroats.

Kittiwakes to Common Sandpiper courtesy and copyright of JFT

7th Apr 2024: Full spring ahead

This week was the start of quite a busy few weeks, with more spring migrants coming in and generally a lot more observers and reports than normal. 

On the bank holiday Monday an Egyptian Goose flew through low to the south and later a Curlew flew over west. There was also a report of 2 Shelduck flying through. There was 2-3 Willow Warblers and several each of Sand Martin and Swallow.

On Wednesday 3rd Ian Rowe saw our first House Martin of the year and later in the day Sandra saw the first Yellow Wagtail of the year. 

On the Friday there were 2 Little Ringed Plovers, House Martin, 3-4 Willow Warblers, Swallow and few Sand Martins. 

Today another Shelduck flew through north, at least 7-8 Willow Warblers and a good number of hirundines including 6+ House Martins. John saw the first Redstart of the year (a female) and later in the day 2 males were also seen. Also the first Common Sandpiper of the year found by Adrian T, 2 Little Ringed Plovers and another Yellow Wagtail.

Raven to Redstarts courtesy and copyright of JFT

31st Mar 2024

Quite a lot of visitors and news this week and I think I've got everything, but I apologise if I've missed anything. 

On Tuesday Bruce Hendrie saw our first Shoveler of the year, with five birds present (4 drakes). Ian also saw a Little Ringed Plover, 2 White Wagtails and a Willow Warbler.

The next morning there were 2 Shoveler and a Little Ringed Plover still and 1 Swallow and 7 Sand Martin later in the day.

John recorded our first (?) Blackcap of the year as well as Willow Warbler and c.9 Chiffchaffs, and later in the day Ian had a Swallow and 3 sand Martin and Sandra had a Little Ringed Plover. 

On Saturday John and I had our first Heron of the year, believe it or not! and today Clive had 12 Swallow, 6 Sand Martin, Little Ringed Plover and a Willow Warbler.

24th Mar 2024: early spring arrivals

There was a nice flurry of early spring migrant arrivals this week. 

Ian Rowe found our first Little Ringed Plover of the year on Friday and on Saturday John Beak saw the first Sand Martin. This morning JFT also had a Willow Warbler and Swallow.

17th Mar 2024: Rock Pipit

Tuesday afternoon there was a Peregrine over, mobbing the Buzzards, and 5+ Chiffchaffs with a few singing birds.

Wednesday morning I found a Rock Pipit (Scandinavian littoralis) on the eastern shore which was good as we tend to get autumn birds instead of spring birds. There was also several Chiffchaffs. John also spotted a ringed Black-headed Gull (EMK1) which we've had here a few times before.

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

Courtesy and copyright of JFT

10th Mar 2024: Red-legged patch rarity!

This week I managed to get out a few times and there's definitely more signs of spring being close. On Wednesday there were 12 Siskins in the Alders near the entrance with constant singing. There was also a Chiffchaff singing further along the river. On Thursday there were 5 Gadwall on the reservoir.

Saturday morning JFT had 2 Chiffchaffs and later I had singles of Yellowhammer, Raven and Lapwing over.

Today JFT was out early before the rain started and was rewarded with a Red-legged Partridge in the the cattle field. This is a big rarity for the patch!

3rd Mar 2024

Pretty quiet week again. Clive had 25 Siskins this morning. Also a Stonechat in the cattle field, which is likely a bird moving through.

25th Feb 2024: winter bits and bobs

The lack of recent blog posts is mostly down to lack of visits but there's not been much news generally, it's fair to say it's been a bit slow.

There's been more flooding... 

Monday 22nd Jan, there was another Pintail (a duck this time) on the reservoir.

Monday 29th Jan, John Beak had 4 Shelduck on the reservoir that didn't stay long before flying off again.

Sunday 4th, Clive had a Peregrine over. 

Today, JFT had a Yellowhammer over.

Some winter sun has meant that Brimstone, Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies have all been seen in these weeks too.

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