By any reasonable measure the Oxon Odonata world is thriving: already host to a great number of
species, several more have been added this year with a surprise colony
of Southern Migrant (Blue-eyed) Hawkers turning up at Otmoor, followed
by some Scarce Blue-tailed Damselflies in Banbury and then over the
weekend only the second record of Willow Emerald in the county. One
thing I've learnt about insects is that in general they're much faster
to colonise new places than birds. You've only got to look at the
Southern Emerald colony that sprang up in a nearby home county as well
as the rapid expansion of Willow Emerald across the country. So I
wouldn't be surprised if all three of these species become well
established in the county before too long.
I have a bit of an ambivalent relationship with Odonata. On the one hand I really enjoy learning all the ID subtleties and have loved working on my Odo list which now just missing the three Scottish specialities as well as some of the rarer migrants. On the other hand, repeatedly seeing the same few species over the course of an entire season just doesn't really do it for me. For this reason whilst I'll enjoy watching them and photographing them en passant such as on my patch at Port Meadow, I won't go very far out of my way to see them unless there is a good reason. However, a local Odo trip to see a new coloniser was certainly enough to prompt me into action. I'd mentally pencilled in a visit to see either the Scarce Blue-tails or the Blue-eyed Hawkers for some time but somehow the timing was never right: either we were busy en famille at the weekend or the weather wasn't right. In the end it got too late to see the Scarce Blue-tails. As far as Otmoor was concerned, originally the Hawkers were found as immatures and after a while news went quiet on them. "Oh well, I guess I've missed those as well" I thought but then news of mature males started to be reported and finally one Sunday morning I was free to have a go. So off I set with my two daughters along for the ride though sadly despite plenty of seraching we didn't manage to see them. Nevertheless it was good to be out looking again and I was starting to get my eye in again.
The following Saturday a female Southern Migrant Hawker was reported from the usual location. Fortunately, the next day I was free to have another go and so found myself walking, this time alone, along the Oddington to Noke track in the extreme heat, hoping I wasn't going to pass out from exhaustion! After a relatively short time of seeing Southern and Brown Hawkers buzzing around I spotted a small Hawker with quite an interesting jizz. It wasn't as "in your face" as a Southern Hawker and didn't have the same feel as a Migrant, something was different. Glimpses of the solid green thorax sides seemed encouraging and it didn't have the huge antehumeral stripes of a Southern. I watched optimistically as it circled for a long time till eventually it settled for a rest right at the top of the Hawthorn hedge and I was finally able to take some photos. It turned out to be an adult female Southerm Migrant Hawker. Whilst the shots were nothing special given how high up she was, I was most pleased to have found my target.
Female Southern Migrant Hawker
Female Southern Hawker
Small Red-eyed Damselfly at the Oddington Weir
Migrant Hawker
In the extreme heat I didn't linger too long and once my target took off again so did I. I wandered back to the car in a good frame of mind. Maybe I will compile a county Odo list after all!
Any half serious birder will be aware that this year is an irruption year for Rose-coloured Starlings. This species breeds in the steppes, semi-deserts and deserts of Central Asia and Southeast Europe but is strongly migratory, overwintering in India and tropical Asia. However when there is an abundance of grasshoppers and other insects then it will irrupt far beyond its usual range which is why they are turning up in such numbers in the UK this year.
Readers might remember that back in June when I went to see the Blyth's Reed Warbler at Far Ing in Lincolnshire, I did contemplate heading a bit further north to see the then resident Rose-coloured Starling at Collingham, Yorkshire but decided in the end not to. This has meant that despite this plethora of birds across the country I'd still yet to see one this year. What's more, of the various Rose-coloured Starlings that I've seen over the years (one in Oxon at Forest Hill and at least three in Cornwall) they've all been juvenile birds. Nice enough of course but I must admit that I'd been admiring the sheer beauty and colourfulness of the adult birds in the various photos this year and had mentally pencilled in making a bit of an effort to see one should the opportunity present itself. However, with sightings now starting to dwindle nationwide I was wondering if I'd missed the boat.
Fortunately Gods Own County of Oxfordshire came to the rescue. By all accounts we're having an excellent year here with a number of goodies such as Hoopoe and Red-footed Falcon already seen. This week, as you'll probably already have guessed, someone turned up a Rose-coloured Starling here in Oxon. This was actually the third such lead that our esteemed county recorder Ian Lewington had had to chase down but the previous two had turned out just to be leucistic normal Starlings. This one however was the real deal. Apparently comging to fat balls in a garden in East Challow, the news broke on Monday evening once the ID had been confirmed. Apparently Ian rang MM who actually lives in East Challow to tell him the news, and just as they were speaking on the phone the very bird in question came down to MM's garden pond for a drink - talk about coincidence! Those quickest off the mark were able to get down there that evening where the bird was seen though it proved rather mobile and elusive. I did contemplate going myself but in the end decided that it was getting a bit late and I was rather tired so decided to leave it until the next day.
The next day, those on site at first light managed to see it on the roof tops of Hedge Hill Rd, near the garden where it was first discovered. However, after a couple of sightings, by early afternoon the trail went rather cold. I'd decided on a visit after work but with no news since 1:30 pm and several people already on site and not connecting I did start to wonder if I was going to succeed. Still nothing ventured and quite frankly I needed an excuse to get out of the house - this lockdown malarky is starting to "do my head in". So at 5pm I fired up the Quattro and headed off. Rather stupidly, rather than listening to my Google Maps app's pleadings to go down the Botley Rd, I instead went onto the A34 ring road, thinking that at this time of day that would be quicker only to be met with a huge traffic jam which Google helpfully told me would take at least 9 minutes to get through. Anyway, eventually I was through though it was getting on for 6pm by the time I finally arrived at East Challow and parked up in the village hall car park. There I met SNT who'd just arrived at the same time. Whilst he chose to hang around by the church where it was seen at this time of day yesterday I chose to have a wander around. To be honest I was quite relishing the challenge: Starlings are relatively easy to see when they're not in a garden as they like to sit high up where they can survey things. So it was just a matter of wandering about looking at all the high up vantage points until I spotted it. "How hard can it be?" I pondered. At least it wasn't just standing around waiting for a bird to appear - something I tend to get rather restless when doing.
Up near Hedge Hill Road I met up with SB and his wife who'd not seen any sign. I did see quite a few Starlings on the rooftops here but sadly not the bird I was looking for. I did a quick circuit around the area before heading back down the road to check up with SNT, to find that BB had now joined him as well. Still no luck so I went back up the road again for a quick look about before heading back down. At this point, like all birders I started to have a natter about this and that. I was just chatting away down near the church when I happened to turn around and look behind me where I spotted a telegraph wire with a few birds on it. A quick lift of the bins and Boom - there it was! I put the word out so that other people in the area could come and see it and then set about taking photos. Sadly by this time of the day the sun was very low and almost directly behind the bird so conditions were pretty terrible and the quality was of the "record shot" level only.
Still it was great to see my first adult Rosy Pastor. The assembled few birders all papped away as best we could though given the light it was a bit of a half-hearted effort on all our parts. After a good ten minutes of more or less sitting there and doing nothing it then flew down and out of sight into what appeared to be a small farm yard of some kind. We all set about trying to find a viewing point into this yard. Whilst the others peered down drives I elected to head up the road where there was a footpath that lead off behind the houses and across the fields. By working my way around the field I was able to get around the other side and have a peer in. I was met with the sight of BB actually in the farm yard - apparently they'd been given permission to enter by the owner whilst I'd been on my detour.
At that moment the word went up that it was in flight. I saw it in amongst a dozen or so Starlings as they flew up from some hidden location and headed towards the tallest tree near the church. I was now stuck on the wrong side of the farm yard and so gingerly picked my was through the cow slurry as quickly as I could in order to join the others who were all papping away furiously as the bird presented itself on the right side of the light, albeit rather high up in the trees. I kicked the superzoom into action and managed a few shots myself.
The bird sat there preening for about five minutes before a Hobby came crashing through and put up the entire flock which scattered in various locations. At this point as I'd already got about as good a photo as I was going to get and it was getting late I decided to head back to Casa Gnome, enjoying the comforting glow of a job well done.
I later learnt that the bird wasn't seen again that evening nor was it around the next day so the Hobby must have scared it off from the location altogether. Still I'd managed to see my first adult Rose-coloured Starling and my third good bird of the year in Oxon. Not too shabby!
With things slowly starting to get back to normal I thought that I'd reflect on the lockdown period, a strange twighlight world of home confinement punctuated by furtive forays out somewhere you hope you'll not meet too many other people. As a family at the weekends we've all needed to get out of the house and so we've been exploring some of the many BBOWT reserves within the county. Whilst I've been a long-standing member of BBOWT if truth be told I've not actually been to that many of the reserves. So when at the first weekend when we were all allowed out for socially distanced walks and the family asked where in the countryside would be a good place to go I suggested that we start to explore some of these locations. Whilst a café visit normally features strongly in any family outing, in these unusual times we resorted to a large flask of tea and some snacks to keep us going. Below is a summary of the various places that we've visited.
Sidling's Copse
I've visited Sidling's Copse a couple of times previously, once with my son in tow and once on my own but it was the first time for the rest of the family. Orchids and grassland flowers are a key feature here and there were still some Early Purples about though many of them were now swamped in the undergrowth.
Early Purple Orchid
The wooded area was completely carpeted in Ransoms (wild garlic)
Yellow Archangel
Bernwood Meadows
The next day we decided to go to Bernwood Forest. As we approached the main Bernwood car park we could see cars parked all along the approach road - clearly, as it was the first weekend of being allowed out, it was going to be heaving. So with a quick change of plans we headed instead to Bernwood Meadows where there was no one else. With a Cuckoo calling distanly as a backing soundtrack we wandered around the ususually dry Meadows. I was surprised at how few Green-winged Orchids were about and how stunted they were - I guess the very dry weather had taken its toll. From there we ventured into the wood and as we were some distance from the main car park and we kept off the main drag we hardly saw anyone else. We were lucky enough to spot a herd of deer running down one of the rides briefly before veering off into the forest.
Adder's Tounge Fern
Green-winged Orchid
Forester Moth - actually the first time I'd seen one. There were quite a few of them flitting sbout the place
Ardley Quarry
This turned out to be a bit of disappointment. It was an interesting enough site but smaller than we were expecting and whilst I rummaged about for butterflies the others soon exhausted the walking possibilities. I did spot several end of season Grizzled Skippers for my efforts but in the hot conditions they never settled long enough for a photo.
Bix Wood
This turned out to be a lovely wood. We approached along a footpath across a field and in the hot conditions enjoyed the coolness of the woodland shade. There was nothing of particular note on the nature front apart from some stunning Honeysuckle trailing down from the trees. A nice site though that I'd definitely want to visit again, just for the pleasure of the woodland walk.
Whitecross Green Wood
Personally this was the highlight of the various walks we did. A nice bonus on the way there was a Spotted Flycatcher on the telegraph wires at Horton cum Studley. This is always a less well know site and with the main car park closed we had the entire place to ourselves. What's more the rides were absolutely filled with butterflies. I know that the narrow rides there tend to concentrate all the butterflies in a relatively small area but it was full of them. It was mostly the usual stuff with Marbled Whites, Ringlets, Meadow Browns and all three Skippers but it was such a delight to see them all in such good numbers. Of course these woods are well known for rarer species such as White Admirals, Silver Washed Fritillaries and even Purple Emperors. We managed to spot several White Admirals and a fleeting glimpse of HIM though I didn't manage a photo of the latter. I heard several Marsh Tits calling and with some Common Spotted Orchids dotted around it was a great visit.
Regular readers will have noticed a distinct lack of posts over the last few months here. The reasons for this are several: I'm now working full time, albeit from home at present, so don't have the opportunity so easily to take the day off to go and twitch something. Weekends are taken up with family activities and in these present difficult times, I'm trying to keep as strictly "family time". Also, at the start of the lockdown due to Government restrictions twitching wasn't even an allowed option and it was only later on (which happily coincided with the Hoopoe and the Red-footed Falcon in Oxon) that it even became a possibility. Not that there's been a great deal that I would have wanted to twitch. I've watched with interest as we were invaded by Rose-coloured Starlings and Marsh Warblers but not enough to want to do anything about it. However, the sudden jump in Blyth's Reed Warblers records has been something that has picqued my interest. This species has been on my wanted list for a few years now: mysterious skulking birds which can only be identified by experts unless they are singing males and with only one or two records per year they would be a highly sought after life tick. That's all changed this year with dozens of records in the last couple of months mostly along the east coast. Most of them have still been rather skulking and most have been discovered through their song so there's probably an equal number of undiscovered females out there. Whilst most have done the usual "arrive exhausted, spend a day or two recouperating and then leave" routine, one bird up in Lincolnshire decided that he liked it so much that he set up territory. For the past week or so (at the time of writing) he's been belting out his song at point blank range in a desperate attempt to attract a mate. Given the numbers arriving in this country it's not altogether impossible that he might find one though the odds are of course heavily stacked against him. Still, a nailed down showy Blyth's was too good an opportunity to miss. I still hadn't really decided to go for it but just happened to mention to my daughter that if she wanted to head up to Edinburgh anytime soon to retrieve her stuff (which is stranded in her student room there at present) then that would be good. She replied that she wasn't allowed to do this just yet but a friend of hers in Doncaster has something that she needed. Now Doncaster happened to be rather near to my target bird so I didn't take much persuading to run this errand for her. So on Monday morning I waited until there was news of the bird's continued presence (which came soon enough - the bird was an early riser!). Then it was a matter of seeing if I could the day off at short notice from work. This was duly agreed upon and so shortly after 9 a.m. I was on the road.
My sat nav app was suggesting that rather than slogging up the M1, then cutting across the M180 instead to take the scenic route via the A46 and A15 past Lincoln. As this wasn't a route that I was that familiar with I thought that I'd give it a try. This turned out to be a nice, reasonably quiet way of getting there and with Radio 4 for company the miles slipped away. I'd left Oxford in bright sunshine but after a while I hit a wall of dull murk. To be honest I was quite pleased about this. The one concern I had was that I'd read reports of the bird stopping singing late morning and becoming much more skulking. My guess was that this might happen sooner the hotter it was so a bit of murk might help in this respect. Eventually I reached the turn off from the A15 and started to see signs for Far Ings Nature Reserve. The iconic Humber bridge hove into view - I was nearly there at last!
The Humber bridge
I parked up at the Ness End Farm, the Lincs WT centre, got tooled up and hurried up the road. As I went I met several other birders coming the other way. I'd forgotten how friendly people are up north - they all wanted to stop and chat. I obliged as much as was polite given that I'd yet to see the bird though they all said that it was singing continuously. Eventually I reached the twitch area which basically consisted of a couple of Hawthorn bushes next to a ditch by the side of a single track road.
Staking out the two Hawthorn bushes
I could hear the bird singing away immediately so my concern about it
stopping and skulking had proved unfounded. My main concern was the
number of people there. This was my first proper out of county twitch
since the pandemic and with a dozen birders crammed in a small space any
kind of social distancing was going to be difficult. To start with I
hung back and used my scope. After a few mnutes of singing hidden away
my target bird flew up into a bare branch at the back of the larger
Hawthorn where it continued to sing away and I was able to get my first
view.
This seemed to be what a number of the present birders (mostly camera toting) seemed to want and after it soon ducked down into the ditch again a good half dozen of them left leaving a much more manageable number behind and I felt safe enough to move closer and to start to wield my superzoom camera. The bird was quiet for no more than a few minutes at a time though would often sing for prolonged periods out of view, sometimes down in the ditch. I'd listened to a number of recordings so knew what to expect though I must admit that I was truly entranced by it's lovely song. It would methodically and deliberately repeat each phrase a number of times and throw in lots of mimicry. It was fun to play "spot the impersonation" and this bird had quite a repertoire.
Occasionally it would fly up onto a bare Hawthorn bush where it was much
more easily viewable and then everyone would pap away like crazy. The rest of the time it would skulk around out of sight though with a bit of observering you could often see the reeds moving as it worked its way through the ditch and thus work out what angle to view from. So a number of times I'd manage to find an angle to view it from and would start taking some shots. The first time I did this some photo birder came and stood literally right next to me in his desperation to get a shot. I really couldn't understand it - it wasn't like the bird had been skulking away for hours. I told him in no uncertain terms that he was standing too close to me and that there was plenty of time to see the bird and he backed off apologetically. I just can't understand this craziness that besets photographers in situations like this. They seem so desperate for that money shot that all reason and etiquette goes out the window when they see their target.
I passed about an hour and a half in this way, enjoying listening to the bird and following it as it alternated between singing on an exposed branch and then skulking around in the ditch. By the end I felt that I'd well and truly seen a Blyth's Reed Warble and could head back for home content. I wandered back to the car in a peaceful frame of mind, stopping only to admire a Pyramidal Orchid standing all alone in an otherwise closely cropped lawn.
On the way back to the car I spotted this single Pyramidal Orchid that someone had carefully mown all around to leave it standing on its own
Back at the car I
did contemplate going for the Rose-colourd Starling about an hour
further northwards at Collingham in Yorkshire but there had been no news on it since
first thing this morning. Whilst it was probably still there, after some
deliberation in the end I decided to head back for home instead. I had
to stop off briefly to pick up something for my daughter (thus making it
an official errand rather than just some random twitch) but apart from
that my journey back home was uneventful and I arrived back at Casa
Gnome late afternoon for my customary celebratory cup of tea and a
catch-up with my VLW.
Addendum: ID Breakdown
My interest in the whole identification headache for the Reed, Marsh, Blyth's complex was picqued recently by a great blog post by Gavin Haig on Not Quite Scilly - see here. In it he went into all sorts of detail regarding the recent Beer Head Blyth's, which was most educational as up until now all that sort of stuff about emarginations of P4 had completely gone over my head. I felt pretty confident that I could successfully identify a singing male from these three species without any difficulty but I was suprised at how tricky the Beer Head bird's song was (see here) - I would certainly have struggled. But what would happen if I came across a non-singing bird, would I be able to do it? Maybe it was time I finally got to grips with the differences. Accordingly and largely for my own benefit (though in passing I hope that this is also useful to others) here's the Gnome Guide to Reed, Marsh and Blyth's.
Feature
Reed
Marsh
Blyth's
Head
super stops at eye, eye ring stronger than super,
dark lower bill
super stops at eye,
eyering same as super,
yellow lower bill
super extends beyond eye,
eyering same as super,
yellow lower bill
Flanks
rufous tinge
yellow tinge all over underside
dark grey tinge
Rump
warmer brown rump
than mantle and tail
rump concolourous
with mantle and tail
rump concolourous
with mantle and tail
Primary Projection
70-100%
7-8 tips
beyond tertials
100%,
7-8 tips
beyond tertials, pale tips
55-70%,
6-7 tips
beyond tertials
Emargination
P3,
little P4
P3,
little P4
P3,
P4,
little P5
Tertials
tertials shorter
than secondaries
tertials extend
beyond secondary
tips
tertials shorter
than secondaries
So, let's look at some photos to illustrate all of the above.
Blyth's (courtesy of Ewan Urquhart)
supercilium extends beyond eye,
no contrast between eye ring and super,
yellowish lower bill
Reed Warbler (courtesy of Nick Truby)
supercilum largely stops at eye
eye ring stands out compared to super
dark lower bill
Marsh warbler (courtesy of Roger Wyatt) super stops at eye no eye ring contrast with super yellow lower bill
Reed Warbler, courtesy of Roger Wyatt rump a warmer brown than mantle & tail rufous tinge to flanks
Marsh Warbler courtesy of Roger Wyatt hint of yellow to underside
Blyth's courtesy of Ewan Urquhart
Short primary projection ~ 50%
strong emargination P3, P4, hint on P5
Short tertials don't reach secondaries
Reed Warbler courtesy of Roger Wyatt
Primary projection ~ 75%
strong emargination P3, hint on P4
I've certainly learnt a lot from putting all this together and now feel that with a half decent photo of a bird in the field I'd be able to nail the ID. I just have to go and find something now!
There are a couple of species that are recorded almost annually in the county yet which are incredibly difficult actually to see. For both these species the records are usually post factum single observer records, often from people who aren't regular birders or sometimes just photos sent to the county recorder asking "what's this bird which was in my garden recently". Each year I think "this year we'll get a twitchable one" but each year I am once again disappointed. Well, finally this was the year, for both species in fact: Hoopoe and Red-footed Falcon.
Three weeks ago on a Thursday news broke at around 11 am of a Red-footed Falcon right on the border between Oxon and Bucks at Piddington. The original source of the news was a Tweet by a worker on some railway embankment works who'd taken a picture of what turned out to be a female Red-footed Falcon looking for worms that were being dug up by the earth works. The modern world being what it is he was soon contacted by various keen locals asking for more information. He then asked his site manager who told him in no uncertain terms to delete the Tweet and that no access was going to be arranged for birders. In the end he deleted his whole Twitter account, such was the interest that he had inadvertently generated.
There was a certain amount of intense discussion within the Oxon birding community about the bird and some people seemed to know more details about where it actually was than others. What's more with COVID19 restrictions having only just relaxed to allow travel within your car for your "daily exercise", there was some debate as to whether twitching should even presently be contemplated. However as it was not thought possible to view it in anyway we all marked it down as yet another tantalising yet untwitchable record. A couple of enterprising young county birders even cycled out there and one or two county birders did go to case the joint by car but by mid afternoon the general conclusion that it was a non starter.
That lasted until about 5:15 pm when one of the young birders reported that he'd seen the falcon in flight from one of the two railway bridges that cross the line either end of the works. That was enough to kick the most twitchy county birders into action and a posse of Oxon's keenest duly sallied forth. Now, I'm not personally in the "go on any chance" kind of twitching camp and tend to be in the second wave of visitors once things are more confirmed, so I stayed at home - it all sounded too speculative for me. However, a team of county listers looking to unblock a long-standing county blocker (the last Red-foot was at Merton Borrow Pit in 1997) are a resourceful bunch and they eventually managed to work out a way to see the bird. However, due to COVID restrictions and the difficult nature of the viewing area where social distancing of any kind would be impossible with any numbers it was decided not to publicise the news to the wider community but instead to use the old fashioned grape vine quietly to pass news on to locals who were interested in seeing it. News duly trickled down to me so the next evening after work myself and a couple of other locals arranged a visit. Even though there's been no news for about a couple of weeks now, I'm not going to reveal any viewing details in case the bird should turn up again but suffice it to say that we all got reasonable views of this lovely bird and I even managed a few ropey digiscoped images.
The following Monday news broke of a Hoopoe found again close to the Bucks county boundry, this time by the Bucks county recorder who it turned out actually lived in Oxon in Twyford just south of Banbury. The bird had apparently been seen a couple of times on the front lawns of a residential close though seemed rather flighty. I was working until 5pm so could only watch developments from afar anyway but there didn't seem to be any concrete news with just occasional reports of brief glimpses. It turned out that Badger was on site though as 5pm approached he told me that it has not been seen for an hour and a half so I was half expecting there to be no further news. However, shortly after 5 pm just as I was just switching off my company laptop for the day, he reported that it had been seen again briefly so off I went on the half hour journey north to Twyford.
Just as I was arriving CO was leaving and wound down his car window to report that it was showing incredibly well at the moment. I rushed to get my stuff together and sprinted down to the small crowd of half a dozen only to discover (of course) that it had just flown off. I was told that it was showing about once per hour so resigned myself to a long wait but in the end it was a little over five minutes before it flew back down onto its favourite lawn though it seemed to be spooked by something (the people standing staring at it I think) for it immediately flew off again. At least I could relax now and with the relief that comes of having seen the target, I started chatting quietly with the others. The bird made one more brief appearance but didn't seem to want to settle. Gradually people started to drift away until it was just Badger and myself. Having seen how flighty it was I decided to sit down and Badger was positioned behind a bush so we now offered a much lower profile and this seemed to do the trick as the bird came back, had a wary look around and then began to feed. In the end this lasted for more than ten wonderful minutes as it methodically worked its way all over the small patch of lawn, regularly digging up leatherjackets and tossing them down with gusto.
Eventually both Jason and I had taken all the photos and footage that we could with the equipment we were using (I was deploying my Superzoom camera and he was on his camcorder). He decided to go and get his digiscoping gear but before he could return a neighbour popped his head out his door right next to the bird and that was enough to spook it. It flew off to the end of the road, landed on a roof and then flitted off to another lawn.
That was good enough for the two of us and we duly headed off, very happy with our views. The bird ended up staying one more day enabling plenty more county birders to connect with it. It was well and truly unblocked!
Other bloggers have been posting their daily sightings on their various patches or from their gardens. All around the country people have been getting stuck in with new found passions for noc migging or their garden list. I have been no exception to this but most of my efforts have revolved around my local patch of Port Meadow for which I have a separate blog. I am so lucky to have such a good patch within a few minutes walk of where I live. In many ways for me the lockdown has brought little change to my daily birding habits. In fact all it has done is to remove any choice about where to go each day which has in fact made my life much simpler. Now my only question each day is when to visit the patch. Some mornings I'd be up there before 7 am and other days it would be an evening visit. I am aware that some readers of this blog might not follow my patch one and in any event I was thinking of doing a round-up of spring sightings now that the passage season is drawing to a close. According this is a condensed single post of what my spring patch birding has been like.
By all accounts it's been a good season for Port Meadow. The lockdown meant that many Oxford birders who might otherwise go to more productive locations such as Farmoor or Otmoor instead were able to travel by foot or bike to the Meadow. This meant that instead of it just being myself and one or two others, we had a good half dozen regular watchers. Indeed on some days the whole day was covered from more or less first light through to dusk. This of course meant that much less slipped through the net than to usual and the result has been a great season with all the classic spring birds that we might hope for and some amazing unexpected bonus birds as well. The only fly in the ointment has been the amazingly dry spell of weather that we've had. Now for Port Meadow the key factor is the flood waters - without them the patch is little more than a large grassy field but the waters attract all sorts of birds and make it the diverse and enjoyable location that it is. Such was the dryness that if it had not been for the wet winter which had meant that we were starting from some very full floods, we might have had a much poorer season. As it was, the floods held out for just long enough to see us into May though the relentless sunshine meant that we never got a decent fall of waders which is the most exciting patch scenario to be encountered. It has also meant that many birds have just kept on flying through rather than dropping in to visit the floods so numbers in many respects have been down on previous years. So all in all there have been a number of conflicting factors contributing to the success or failure of the spring passage but on balance it has been a good one.
Waders
I'll start with the regular birds that we would hope to see each year. The spring passage kicked off in late March with the first Sand Martins and Little Ringed Plover. In fact the latter species went on to be by far the most common wader recorded on the floods with a count in excess of 40 birds as I write this with another 10 just seen in the last few days.
The commonest Meadow wader this spring
Apart from this lovely plover we had a smattering of Dunlin and Ringed Plover later on in the season though without the regular daily sightings that I would expect had the weather been more mixed.
Dunlin and Ringed Plover on the Meadow
We also had a good spring for Black-tailed Godwits with quite a few flocks of up to 8 birds passing through mostly in April. Unfortunately we never got any records of its rarer cousing the Bar-tailed Godwit.
A lone Black-tailed Godwit arrived late on the in season
Redshank were fairly numerous at the start of the season with a few Greenshank later on (with one staying several days). We also had a couple of Curlew records as well which was nice to see.
Unfortunately this spring was rather light on many of the rarer waders and we never got Sanderling, Knot or Green Sandpiper. Also, whilst we did manage a Whimbrel record, it was just a heard-only flyover one evening. Even Common Sandpiper (which is normally fairly common on the Meadow) was only seen once one evening. However there were a few really excellent wader species which we did manage to get which I've written up in the Top Birds Section
Passerines
Wagtails and pipits are somewhat of a speciality of Port Meadow and we had a good spring passage of wagtails at least. There were plenty of Yellow Wagtails though no Blue-headed or Channel's this time. We also had an unusually good spring for White Wagtails. Normally we're lucky if we get one at all in April but we must have had at least a dozen this time - I don't know what brought about this suddenly increase in records apart from the increased coverage from extra eyes on the patch.
One of many Yellow Wagtails seen this spring
One of an unusually high count of White Wagtails
On the pipit front we were lucky enough to have someone spot a fly-over Tree Pipit one morning. This species is a bit of Meadow speciality where we've had a few stick around in Burgess Field for a while though not so this time round. We also had a Common Redstart record where one was seen briefly one morning though it wasn't seen again. We were also blessed with a good number of Wheatear records this spring. This species is normally only recorded once or twice a year but the increased coverage brought at least half a dozen records this spring.
In terms of Warblers the usual species arrived more or less when they might be expected. We were lucky to get several Sedge Warblers passing through though once again sadly there were no Grasshopper Warbler records to be had.
Top Birds of the Spring Passage
As well as the joy of watching the return or at least passage of the usual species each spring, it's the one-off rarer records which help to make for a good season. This time, thanks to the numbers watching the Meadow and with the help of technology to disemminate news quickly, many people were able to catch up with some of the better sightings. So in a rough order of increasing importance below are the "Top7 Birds of Spring".
7 Avocet
To start with we have an Avocet. This species is a bit less than annual but this bird turned up on the same morning as one of the top birds in this list, making for a great morning double
The Avocet
6 Osprey
The next bird in this list is an Osprey which I was fortunate enough to luck in on as it circled the Meadow for a few minutes one morning. The same bird had been seen south of the city at Iffley Lock about 15 minutes earlier so was clearly following the river north.
It's an Osprey, honest!
5 Wood Sandpiper
This rare county wader is something of a speciallity of the Meadow and over the years we've hosted more than our fair share. One was found one evening though unfortunately it had gone by the next morning so not so many birders got to see it.
Wood Sandpiper courtesy of Joe Wynn the finder
4 Grey Plover
Back when I first started birding the Meadow this species would turn up relatively often, usually later on in the spring passage season. However it's been a good few years since we had one so for this reason I've ranked it ahead of the Wood Sandpiper though it's about the same rarity level.
The Grey Plover
3 Great White Egret
This species is not the rarity that it once was. I remember going to twitch the first one for the county back when I'd just started birding whereas it's now seen regularly throughout the year. Still it's a rarity for the Meadow with just a few records, often fly-overs though we did have one up at the Wolvercote Lakes one spring. This was actually my personal favourite sighting of the spring, as I happened to find it early one morning just as the sun was starting to burn off the morning mist. It was standing on its own in the middle of the floods and in its summer breeding plumage it looked very exotic with pistachio bill base and pink flush to its thighs. Unfortunately it didn't linger and no one else got to see it. It was found the same morning as the Avocet which made for a great double.
The Great White Egret in full breeding plumage
2. Black Tern
I have a bit of history with this species on the patch. The only other record this century was in 2011 where one turned up one evening but because of family commitments I wasn't able to see it. For my own sanity I don't keep a personal patch list but instead prefer to work on the multi-contributor year list and historic record list. Still it was a nice grip-back when one was found during one of only a couple of days of poor weather. In poor conditions it stuck around all evening but was gone the next day.
1. Ring Ouzel
Top bird this spring was the long staying Ring Ouzel. In fact we first had a record in Cripley Meadows allotments one morning though no one else ever saw it. A couple of days later what may very well have been the same bird was found skulking around in Burgess Field. It was faithful to a relatively small, rather wooded area in the nature reserve but was remarkably elusive, often offering only the briefest of glimpses. It stuck around for more than a week in the end and as the only patch record of this species this century (there were a couple in the late 90's) it well deserves its billing as top bird of the spring on Port Meadow
I was lucky with a bit of field craft finally to get a reasonable photo of our star bird
So that was the Port Meadow spring. Autumn normally starts very late for the Meadow as the floods don't normally form until November when we've had sufficient rain so unfortunately we tend to miss out on the return wader passage. Let's hope for a nice wet summer then!
