Yet Another Oxon Mega: Farmoor Twite!

In my last blog post I wondered whether there might be yet another rarity in Oxfordshire before the year was out. That thought has turned out to be rather prescient as indeed there has been some further top drawer Oxon birding action just in the last week. What's more the county rare bird finding machine that is JD has struck not just once but in fact twice in the space of 24 hours. What a year he's having!

It all started on Wednesday when mid-afternoon JD reported a Pectoral Sandpiper on Pit 60 from the Langley Hide. You may remember (see here) that this is the same site where he found the wonderful Marsh Sandpiper a couple of months earlier.  As I had already seen several Pectoral Sandpipers in the county, on my own Port Meadow patch no less, I was not desperate to see this bird and didn’t bother to drop everything and go when the news broke. A few keen birders did do so and managed to get some pretty decent views of it. Still I was interested enough that the next morning I got up early to rendezvous with JC and CM at the site. However, despite our best efforts it was nowhere to be seen and must have moved on in the night. There were a noteworthy 20+ Great White Egrets there which is an amazing count for Oxon though not really sufficient compensation. Somewhat disappointed with the lack of Pec Sand, I headed back home and got on with my day

However, JD struck yet again that day. I was midway through a client session at the time and made the mistake of checking a WhatsApp message during the session when news broke that he’d only gone and found a couple of Twite at Farmoor Reservoir. Total inner turmoil on my part as this was a real county Mega with the last definite county sighting being three birds briefly on the causeway at Farmoor way back in 2007. It was certainly a much needed county rarity for my list. I then had to sweat it out for another half an hour, trying to give my client my undivided attention before the session came to a natural end. At that point I grabbed my gear, bundled into the Gnome-mobile and headed off to Farmoor as fast as I could. This turned out to be not very fast at all. It was prime rush hour with loads of people all leaving Oxford at the same time. Every red light was against me and the traffic was heavy on the A34. There were even road works just before Farmoor village itself. Such torment! I finally pulled up in the car park at Farmoor and raced up the slope towards the causeway. I’d decided to travel light with just my bins and superzoom camera and my running shoes rather than my usual walking boots. I half ran, half walked along the causeway into a really strong headwind towards the far end. In this distance I could see a small handful of birders half way along the west shore of F1 (the smaller of the two reservoirs), hopefully still watching the pair of Twite. 

As I got within 100 yards they seemed to be start dispersing.

"Oh no! Had the birds gone???" 

My heart started to sink as they seemed to be packing up. This was the worse possible outcome of all: missing the birds by a matter of literally minutes. I could not believe it! With resignation I finally got close enough to ask what was happening. The birds had apparently just flown though not that far and had come down again about 100 yards further west along the path. 

"Was there yet hope yet???"

I made my tentative way along the path with a couple of other birders seeing if we could relocate them. Fortunately one of my companions spotted them roughly where he'd seen him come down feeding away on the margins just where the the grass was overhanging the tarmaced path. At last I got my first glimpse of this county mega and I could start to relax and actually enjoy them.

The two Twite, taken earlier in the day in brighter conditions courtesy of Jeremy Dexter

 

I say enjoy them but the light was appalling, it was windy as anything and it was starting to rain heavily. The birds were quite mobile as well: moving around back and forth across the path and into the longer grass poking the head up occasionally. I tried to take some photos though given all this it was hard work. After about 10 minutes they flew a short distance again and seemed to come down on the actual reservoir shoreline rather than on the path. After a bit of searching we managed to find them though they were tucked up right under the wavewall feeding away in a clump of daisies and it was hard to get clear views. More people turned up including Oxon Big Year lister CM with his two kids in their push chair. It reminded me of times in the past when I'd dragged my son L around to see various birds. I remember taking him to Farmoor to see a Bonaparte's Gull where he fell over and bumped his head, and also dragging a heavy push chair across the bog that is the Pill on Otmoor in the vain search for a Richard's Pipit. Happy memories!

Above and below, courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

 

Suddenly the birds flew off somewhere and nobody saw what direction they went. At that moment BS, the current Oxon Big Year leader turned up, having been stuck in traffic. Was he going to dip? The Oxon Big Year has been a very interesting contest to follow from the sidelines. I had done one way back in the day with JC and TW when JC broke the county record with 199 (+American Black Tern subspecies). I finished second with a creditable 197 (+ABT). Having done one I'd vowed never again and so was just enjoying the contest from the sidelines. BS was sitting on 190 (with a few things counted that we didn't back then) but needed his Twite. There was a bit of scratching of heads trying to work out where they'd gone. I told the group that the people who'd "handed over" to me when I'd arrived had mentioned that the birds had come back three times to the same spot, about 100 yards along the west shore so I suggested we head back there. As was started to walk that way news popped up on the WhatsApp channel that they were indeed back there. We all hurried over there and had another good look at them as they skulked about in the margins and BS managed to get his year tick.

I've included decent photos of the birds taken earlier on by better photographers with better equipment but this shows the reality of the situation. Drenched birders in gloomy half light watching tiny brown birds in amongst the thick grass!

 

By this stage I was started to get wet and cold and my camera lens was covered in rain. It was definitely time to head back. I hurried back at a brisk walk in the company of BS. I couldn't help but think how the mad dash in the appalling weather had made for a thoroughly enjoyable and dramatic twitch. Of course I could afford to think this given I'd manage to connect and, had I dipped, I might have felt very differently. But, after all the drama and tension, I had the warm glow of a great county tick - one that I didn't ever think I'd get given how rare they are. Back in the car park I cranked the heating on to warm up a bit and to dry out. Then it was back into the maelstrom of the rush hour and back home to Casa Gnome for a well deserved cup of reviving tea.  

Another from the finder Jeremy Dexter

 

As a footnote, it's worth just mentioning JD's amazing run of top draw county finds this year: Marsh Sandpiper, Bluethroat, Pectoral Sandpiper and Twite as well as a bonus Wood Warbler in the spring. What a year he is having and what a vintage county year this is turning out to be with Savi's Warbler and Red-footed Falcon being additional top county birds. I've had four county ticks this year already. Dare I hope for one more before the year is out? You never know!