What a vintage year this is turning out to be for Oxon. Usually as a land-locked county about as far as one can get from the sea we have to be content with picking up scraps of the occasional rarities and it's easily possible to go a whole year without any sniff of a county tick. However, this year we've already had Red-footed Falcon, Savi's Warbler, Marsh Sandpiper and Manx Shearwater and even a Honey Buzzard that was twitched by a few dedicated county birders. Surely there couldn't be any more this year? Well, it turned out that there was more to come.
There was a certain sense of dejá vu to proceedings when county rarity finding machine JD messaged the local WhatsApp group to say that he thought he had a Bluethroat at the second screen at Otmoor. He was the same finder who initiated the last major twitch with the the Standlake Marsh Sandpiper. Once again, this wasn't twitchable on the day it was found, with only half an hour of daylight left once the ID had been firmed up . With it taking getting on for an hour from door to the second screen once the long 1.5 mile walk was factored in, there was no point in dropping everything so myself, no doubt along with the great and the good of the county, all feverishly started making our plans for the next day. Personally I had no meetings to worry about for the next morning so planned to be there at first light.
Thus it was that I was up at the ungoldly hour of 5:20 a.m. and driving through the dark deserted streets of Oxford on the twenty minute journey to the car park at Otmoor. Here I found half a dozen other cars all parked up and other twitchers getting ready in the darkness. I found myself in the company of SM as we walked quickly along the paths in the darkness before eventually arriving at the second screen - about as far from the car park on the reserve as it's possible to get. There were about half a dozen others already there and in the half light I found a spot to set up my scope and join in the vigil.
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| The view from the second screen looking towards the distant reedbed |
We were looking out onto a pool of water surrounded on three sides by reeds. Last night JD had reported that it had been seen on and off in one particular area of the reedbed, working its way in and out of the base of the reeds. Now this species is notorious for often being really tricky to see with it's preferred reedbed habitat often making viewing extremely difficult. However, JD's account of it being seen regularly was reassurring. So it was just a question of whether it was still there. We were about to find out.
In the dawn gloom it was hard to make much out but we all peered intently at the base of the reeds, trying to find our target bird. The distances weren't helpful, with it being at least 100 yards to the back of the pool and it wasn't easy to make much out in the murk. Some 30 minutes or so passed and the crowd was just starting to get a bit restless when eagled eyed Uber Birder TM announced that he thought he had it right at the back. The trouble was that there were so few landmarks and we all scrambled to get on it. Things like "behind the cluster of white feathers", "next to the sleeping Snipe", "working it's way left" were bandied about as we all did our best. Eventually I was able to get on it, just making out its pale breast as it moved surprisingly rapidly amongst the reeds and along the shore. With confirmation from a second person, news was put out and soon after everyone else managed to get on it. Even with multiple directions it was often difficult to connect and there were times when I couldn't see it despite the person right next to me being on it and giving directions. Gradually however, it worked it's way left and nearer and as the light got better we all started to get better views. After showing regularly from about 7:10 a.m. onwards, at about 7:40 a.m. it worked it's way right into the corner where there was a hidden channel that couldn't be viewed.
Video courtesy of Jason Coppock
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| Photo courtesy of Gareth Cashburn |
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| Happy Oxon birders, having seen the Bluethroat! |
As a first winter male, this bird didn't have its blue throat yet so it wasn't possible to pin it down to subspecies. In fact, after reading up on it more, there are more than just the White-spotted and Red-spotted subspecies as it's a fairly widely distributed chat. Indeed it can be found right across Europe and Asia and even has a foothold in Western Alaska. It is migratory and winters in the Iberian Peninsula, the northern half of Africa and also southern Asia. Whilst this bird was clearly a bit lost, with climate change we can no doubt start to expect more Bluethroats in the years to come. After all, the Slimbridge bird had now been visiting for the last five years.
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| Photo courtesy of Nick Truby |
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| Photo, taken the next day by Richard Stevens |
More people started to arrive though to be honest I was somewhat surprised that there hadn't been more at first light. TM left first - it was literally his last day in Oxford (what a wonderful parting gift!) and he had to get on with moving out. With the bird not having been seen for about half an hour and, starting to feel rather tired after my early start, I decided to head back home soon after. I ambled contentedly back along the paths, enjoying the autumnal hedgerow scenery before eventually getting back to the car and heading back to Casa Gnome via Summertown for some shopping.
The bird eventually reappeared and showed on and off throughout the day. Indeed, at the time of writing this, it was still around the following day. I wonder how long it might end up staying? In any event it was yet another a great county bird this year. Could there possibly be even more before the year is out? Given events so far one can't rule it out!
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