Local Winter Birding Round-up

Periodically I like to do a round-up of various local trips that weren't important enough to warrant a blog post of their own but which still involved some nice county birds. This is just such a post with a few visits to some choice Oxon birds to document.

First off were a couple of decent Farmoor ducks that chose the concrete bowl as an overwintering spot. Specifically they were a female Greater Scaup and a first winter male Common Scoter - the latter I'd already seen last December. It took me a couple of visits to catch up with them, usually because I was looking for them en passant while trying to see something more interesting. Eventually I got pretty decent views of both of them with the Scaup especially showing very close in.

The female Greater Scaup

 

A rather poor digiscoped image of the 1w make Common Scoter

Next up was a long staying Long-tailed Duck at Rushy Common. This bird intially gave a lot of people the run-around as it would appear for one day and then promptly vanish again. When it appeared one very rainy afternoon which happened to coincide with me feeling bored with nothing to do, I decided to go and visit. The only trouble was that I didn't have a key to the hide which was the only easy viewing point. I arrived in torrential rain and hurried along the flooded path towards the hide. A judicious WhatsApp message on the county chat found someone in the hide who came out to let me in. Once inside I spent an hour or so watching the always-distant Long-tailed Duck. It would periodically disappear behind a line of Willows and was diving frequently so it was often out of sight. This was my third county Long-tailed Duck after one in an obscure pit near Dorchester and another in one of the many Cassington GP complex pits. In subsequent weeks it became much more reliable and more easily viewed.

In the conditions I saw this bird there was no point in attempting any photographs but Ewan Urquhart got this great photo in brighter conditions when it was much closer

There was also a county Kittiwake that was originally found at Port Meadow by TM before relocating to Farmoor. It became increasingly ill before collapsing on the bank. At this point I picked it up and took it to the Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue centre. To their credit they were the only one which would actually take the bird, given the risk of bird flu. Sadly the bird died a few days later in their care (not from bird flu). This was only my third county Kittiwake as they are generally surprisingly hard to catch up with in Oxon. Often they are found in a winter gull roost though spring passage days can sometimes produce the goods.

The Kittiwake on the first day it was found at Port Meadow, courtesy of Thomas Miller

 

Being handed over to Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue

I also went to see the long-staying Black Redstart at Christchurch College in the centre of Oxford. This has become a bit of a regular thing with one or two birds finding the south facade of the college as it backs onto Christchurch Meadow, to their liking. I chose a bright sunny day and was soon rewarded with some lovely views of this charming bird.

So there you have it. Now that we are in April, it's full-on spring migrant action on the local patch. I'm excited to see what my next national twitch might be.