I've been on a number of local outings to see things of interest so far this year. This has partly been driven by the poor spring performance of my local Port Meadow patch and partly just to add a bit of variety to my birding routine. I had been meaning to blog about these more regularly but somehow things got away from me. So without further ado, below are some of the nice county birds that I've seen this year.
Otmoor Green-winged Teal
This species is a bit of a county Mega with surprisingly few county records over the last 17 years or so that I've been county birding. I saw the Standlake bird in 2018 but that's been the only one. Compare that to American Wigeon where I've seen three in the county already. So when one was found in January of this year I decided to head out on a sunny Saturday morning to pay a visit. It was on show from the first screen fairly regularly and made for an enjoyable morning out. Now if we could only have one on Port Meadow...
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| Above and below the Green-winged Teal |
Oxford Greater Scaup
This bird had been at Farmoor but in January hopped over to Hinksey Lake in Oxford. I was looking for an excuse to get out of the house and decided to walk there to get some exercise. It had been quite a few years since I'd visited Hinksey Lake - I used to go fishing there back in the day so it was nice to see it again. The bird was a bit more distant than when it was first found but I enjoyed seeing this species so close to home.
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| The Hinksey Greater Scaup courtesy of Gareth Cashburn |
Farmoor Slavonian Grebes
A pair of these Grebes turned up on Farmoor one day, looking very smart in near full summer plumage. It had been a few years now since I'd seen one so I went to take a look. They were on show the whole time albeit rather distant. Nevertheless it was great to see them in their summer finery.
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| The two Slavonian Grebes |
Temminck's Stint
Temminck's Stint used to be a bit of a speciality bird of my local patch of Port Meadow though there was no chance this year with the floods drying up there depressingly early in this very dry spring. However, Thomas Miller (see here) found one of these smart little waders on the hot new county site of North Cross Valley Way. A quick 20 minute drive from home one Sunday morning in May allowed me to admire this cracking little bird in what turned out to be a very nice looking site. One could easily imagine something stonking turning up there and fortunately the site is becoming quite well watched now.
Some video footage of the bird.
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| The first birders on the scene with me in the foreground digiscoping, courtesy of Justin Taylor |
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