Oxfordshire seems to be on good form at the moment. After my two recent local sorties in my previous post, I now have a couple more to describe. The first is a long-staying first winter male Black Redstart that has been hanging out on the southern face of Christ Church College overlooking Christ Church Meadows. This site has hosted several previous Black Redstart so it wasn't a great surprise to hear that one had again taken up residence. However, rather than the usual female type, this one was a very smart first winter male so I made a mental note to try to pay a visit.
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| A stunning photo of the stunning 1w male Black Redstart courtesy of Thomas Miller |
The general consensus was that early mornings were the best for seeing this bird. Despite this, Wednesday of last week I had an early afternoon meeting in the centre of town so I thought I would go on to try for the bird. It was a very gloomy afternoon where the light was so poor that it was hard to see anything. Myself and a young couple put in an hour or so of watching to be rewarded with some very brief views of a bird that was behaving in the right way as it briefly fed on the creeper that clung to the college wall. I only saw it face on and it didn't have the striking black face mask of the target bird and I hadn't seen it well enough to see it's tail. On the views I had had, I couldn't rule out a Dunnock so I left disappointed.
That same Friday, after several days of gloom, it was finally forecast to be bright and sunny so I thought I would get up early and have another attempt. I was on site at 8:25am where, in the company of DL, we spotted the bird leaving its roost in some trees just by the college wheelie bins, before, to our surprise it flew off across the path and disappeared on the flooded grass of the Meadow. Hmmm, that had not been what we were expecting. DL and AF (who had joined us) elected to walk down the path to try and find it while I decided to stay at the college facade and the bins. The others eventually returned with no luck and a few other people turned up. Before too long the bird was back, showing rather distantly on the side of the college and also in the large tree in the college garden. It then moved to the roof top where I was finally able to get a photo.
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| A rather distant photo of it perched on the roof of the college |
I kept watching the college facade as the bird appeared from time to time. On one such occasion I noticed that it wasn't the usual male on the side of the wall but instead a female type. So there were now two birds! In hindsight, what I'd seen a couple of days ago and had dismissed as a Dunnock was probably this second, more infrequently seen bird. I hung around for a while longer enjoying watching these charismatic birds feeding in the bright sunshine before heading back home. The first winter male is still around a week later and the female type is seen occasionally though much less frequently.
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| The female type Black Redstart courtesy of Thomas Miller |
The county's purple patch continued when on the following Sunday, in the teeth of Storm Darragh, EU managed to find a Purple Sandpiper on the shores of Farmoor Reservoir. This is a fairly rare county species. Indeed, apart from a couple of birds in August 2021, you have to go back to 2011 for the last county record. So, along with a number of other county birders, I braved the storm to take a look. The wind was so strong that, despite the bird being very approachable, I didn't linger long after taking some photos. It was a shame as it's was a lovely that showed very well at close quarters. After no more than fifteen minutes in its company I beat a hasty retreat back to the car.
