Oxon Birding Blog: June 2011

Thursday, 30 June 2011

Swift - Abingdon 30th June

Swifts are nesting in a neighbour's eaves. This was an aborted attempt to enter the hole. Normally they zoom straight in without hesitating so they are very difficult to photograph.

Otmoor back to normal

Just to let you all know Otmoor is now back to normal, the bomb was finally blown up at 1810 this evening, there was not very much left of it!

Thanks for staying away

David

Ring-necked Parakeets 30th June

Tom Wickens has just reported three ring-necked parakeets along the Thames between Henley and Shiplake.

+ 52 Egyptian Geese (between Pangbourne, Tilehurst and Henley)
11 Mandarin
1 Common Sandpiper
5 Kingfisher

As a matter of interest he is doing another of his month listing challenges and has got an amazing total of 116 for June.

Port Meadow: 29th June

Port Meadow
9 Little Ringed Plover: including several juveniles.
Ringed Plover: juv.
Redshank
Shelduck

Adam Hartley

Un-exploded bomb!

The whole of Otmoor is currently closed due to the uncovering of an unexploded WW2 bomb on the Flood Field. The MOD are on site and planning to deal with it this morning. Please do not try to come to the reserve or the surrounding areas of the moor, as you will be turned away.
Once the exclusion zone has been lifted we will make a posting.

Monday night, turtledove, grasshopper warbler, 60 sand martins, juv redshank, drumming snipe, lesser whitethroat, reed and sedge warblers still singing, and painted lady.

Thanks for your help

David

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Cholsey 29th June

Hobby
Sprawk
Lesser Whitethroat
Sedge Warbler 6+
Reed Warbler 2
Blackcap 2

(per Paul Chandler oos)

more at the superb http://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Port Meadow: 28th June

Port Meadow
10 Little Ringed Plover: including several juv.s.
Black-tailed Godwit
Redshank
Oystercatcher
2 Stock Dove

Adam Hartley

Spotted Fly-catcher Oxon http://theparanoidbirder.blogspot.com/ (c) P.B
No apologies for another photo of this charismatic bird.

Farmoor 28th June

Female and Juvenile Redstart (Shrike Meadow)

Monday, 27 June 2011

Farmoor 27th June

5 Common Scoter at Farmoor at 14:45 on F2
best viewed from the 'Bus Stop' at the southern end of F2.
+2 Silver-washed Fratillary
(per Dai)

3 m and 2 f Still present on F2 at 8pm (per Dave Lowe)

Bernwood Emperor

Purple Emperor Bernwood Forest photos by Wayne & Ewan.

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Wantage Lattin Down: 26th June

Wantage: Lattin Down
Quail: heard calling. SU411845.

Adam Hartley

Badbury Wood & Buscot: 26th June

4 Marsh Tit, family party
2 Grey Wagtail, pair feeding young
1 Turtle Dove, purring
2 Spotted Flycatcher, pair at nest

Tawny Owl Beckley 26th June

Bernwood Forest 26th June ( 9-10:30am)

Turtle Dove (per Wayne Bull)
2 Garden Warbler
Blackcap
Willow Warbler
2+Chiff-chaff

2-3 Purple Emperor
6+ Silver-washed Fratillary
Purple Hairstreak
White Admiral
Red Admiral

5+ Green Sandpiper at 1066
Greenshank still at Rushy Common
4+ Hobby Otmoor
2+Tree Sparrow Eynsham

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Rushy Common: 25th June

1 Greenshank
1 Common Sandpiper
17 RC Pochard including 1 juv
2 Little Egret
20 Lapwing

Port Meadow: 25th June

Port Meadow
No sign of the Black-tailed Godwits
7 Little Ringed Plover
1 Ringed Plover
4 Oystercatcher
2 redshank
1 peregrine

Tom Wickens, Duncan Eames & Gnome

Friday, 24 June 2011

Gnome on Radio Oxford

Port Meadow on BBC Radio Oxford

Published by Port Meadow Birding the Friday, June 24, 2011 at 7:47 AM in _2011_Apr_Jun. 0 comments. Permalink.

I was interviewed for Radio Oxford on Thursday afternoon. One of the readers of this blog, Martin Feynes (I hope that I've spelt the surname correctly), has developed a walk all around the outskirts of Oxford which they are featuring on the Jo Thoenes show on BBC Radio Oxford over the coming weeks, looking at a different section of the walk each time. This time it was the starting point at Port Meadow and to add some local interest they brought me in to talk about the bird life on the Meadow. The relevant section starts 13:50 minutes in and lasts about five minutes. Please note that the podcast will only be available until next Wednesday and can be found here

(taken from http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/PortMeadowBirding/ )

Port Meadow 24th June

6 Oystercatcher
3 Little Ringed Plover: Flew in at 5.45.
2 Ringed Plover
2 Black-tailed Godwit
Common Sandpiper

Richard Foster

24th June Grafton

At grafton today two adult Spotted Flycatchers feeding three chicks photo(c) B.Hudson

Spotted fly-catcher nr Abingdon (c) Paranoid Birder
http://theparanoidbirder.blogspot.com/

Otmoor 24th June

4+ Hobby
4 Gropper
Turtle Dove

(per The Wickster)

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/OtmoorBirding

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Quail nr Burford 23rd June

Quail singing 1ml north of Burford in field by A424/minor road
to Milton under Wychwood junction at 6.50pm.
(per RBA)

Radley 23rd June

3 Oystercatcher (1juv)

2 Little ringed Plover
2 Common Tern
2 Kingfisher
Whitethroat
Garden Warbler
Blackcap

Oddington 23rd June

Redstart (f) seen this morning near Oddington.
2 Turtle Dove.

(per Pete)

Churn 22nd June

2 Quail (heard)
Corn Buntings
Grey Partridge
Curlew

(per The Wickster & Dave Lowe)

Going Birding Problems - Fixed

There seems to be a problem (for me at least) with submitting sightings to Going Birding at present. I've contacted Marek about this and with any luck it should be sorted out fairly soon.

Adam

This has been sorted out now

Port Meadow Wednesday 22nd June

6 little ringed plover
3 redshank

One of the three redshank on the floods (c) Adam Hartley

Monday, 20 June 2011

Port Meadow: 20th June

Port Meadow
6 Little Ringed Plover
2 Redshank
1 Common Sandpiper
1 Hobby
1 Greenshank
1 Oystercatcher

Foster & Gnome

Otmoor: 20th June

Otmoor
Quail: heard calling. Also present; 2 Turtle Doves, Hobby, Kingfisher, Little Owl, Grasshopper Warbler. Black Hairstreak reported near the carpark.

Joe Harris

Mon. June 20th Buscot Lock

Turtle Dove still purring away and 8 Reed Warblers including 3 fledglings

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Rushy Common 19th June

5+Red-crested Pochard (inc juv)
2 Little Egret
2 Oystercatcher
20 Lapwing

Oddington 19th June

6 Whitethroat
2 Willow Warbler
1 Chiff-chaff
2 Blackcap

Radley Lakes 19th June

1 Green Sandpiper (Lake H/I)
1 Curlew (Plover pit, which now very dry). Appeared to fly off later.
2 pairs Common Tern, at least one of the pairs had young.
Plus Reed Bunting, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler (with young), Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Dunnock.

Grimsbury Reservoir: 19th June

Grimsbury Reservoir
7 Sand Martin: Groups of 5 and 2 heading south fairly rapidly. Migrating out already?.
4 Common Tern
Bullfinch: juv. juveniles also seen; Robin, Goldfinch, Blue tit (plenty, Long tailed tit (one family), Great tit (one family), Sedge warbler, PW (2 family groups), Mallard, Moorhen and Great spotted woodpecker.
Grey Wagtail: m. Nesting near the entrance. Carrying food and aggitated behaviour.

Gareth Blockley

Saturday, 18 June 2011

Port Meadow: 18th June

Port Meadow
4 Little Ringed Plover
Hobby
2 Common Sandpiper

Adam Hartley

18 June Farmoor

Swifts & 1 Sanderling

Ashbury 18th June

Quail 1+ (H)
Yellow Wagtail 8
Corn Bunting 10

(per MTM oos)

Friday, 17 June 2011

Otmoor: Oddington Lane: 17th June

Otmoor: Oddington Lane
Turtle Dove
Hobby

Gareth Blockley

Thursday, 16 June 2011

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 16th June

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
8 Curlew
Hobby
Little Owl

Gavin Paterson

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Spotted Fly-catcher Waylands Smithy nr Uffington
(per Barry Hudson oos)

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Harris Hawk

Brian Wyatt has just seen the Harris Hawk at Cholsey Marsh. 19:30

photo (c) P.Chandler taken earlier this year.
http://cholseywildlife.blogspot.com/

Quail 14th June

1ml NNE.of Burford, south of Milton Downs Farm

Quail (male) calling from cereal fields around small wood along minor road between Downs Lodge and Milton Downs Farm. SP264152.

Dave Morgan

Otmoor. 14th June.

M.O.D. Land
2 Buzzard
4 Curlew

1 Turtle Dove (Oddington end )
1 Common Tern ( Reedbeds )
3 Hobby
1 Kestrel
1 Turtle Dove (Beckley end )

Spoonbill seen until 10 A.M.

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/OtmoorBirding

Peachcroft Farm 14th June

One of a pair of Spotted fly-catchers near Abingdon.

Guardian of the north bank...

Pete on the lookout for the next Otmoor Mega...

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/OtmoorBirding

Monday, 13 June 2011

Port Meadow: Medley: 13th June

Port Meadow: Medley
Common Sandpiper

Port Meadow
2 Ringed Plover

Mary Gregory

Otmoor.A.M. 13th June.

Spoonbill (still there at 11 a.m)
2 Jay
1 Turtle Dove
2 Bullfinch
6 or 7 Common Tern (2nd screen )
1 L.R.Plover

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/OtmoorBirding

Otmoor 13th June

Spoonbill (ad) still on Otmoor 9:10a.m
in front of the Hide.
(per Paul Greenaway)

http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/OtmoorBirding

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Otmoor: 12th June

Spoonbill Still showing well in front of hide at 20:30. Male and fem cuckoo past hide and 100s of toadlets inside it (hiding from spoonbill!?). Gropper reeling near Big Otmoor gauge boards.

Joe Harris

Port Meadow: 12th June

Port Meadow
2 Oystercatcher
Shelduck

Richard Foster

11th June - PM - Otmoor Spoonbill

Showing quite well in front of the hide ~ 3:00pm, seems to have quite a noticeable limp.

Still present at 16:50 in front of 2nd screen (per Badger)
Also 6 little egrets and 3 wigeon.

© Jonathan Crouch

Re Otmoor Spoonbill

Could anyone with any more info on this bird and especially a picture please contact me through the otmoorbirding blog. Thanks Peter

It was found yesterday by Carol Monger. There's a photo of it on Flickr which I've copied to here. It may well be the Port Meadow bird.
(Adam)

Otmoor spoonbill (c) Carol Monger (via Flickr)

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 11th June

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
Spoonbill: Seen from the Hide.

Carol Monger

Saturday, 11 June 2011

Port Meadow: 11th June

Port Meadow
2 Oystercatcher
4 Little Ringed Plover
Ringed Plover
Hobby

Richard Foster

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Otmoor.A.M. 9th. June.

2 Jay
2 G.S.Woodpecker
2 L.R.Plover
3 L.Egret
1 L.Grebe with 3 chicks ( Ashgrave )
2 Hobby
1 Raven

Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Port Meadow: 8th June

Port Meadow
Oystercatcher
2 Little Ringed Plover

Adam Hartley

Port Meadow 8th June: Spoonbill Still

The Port Meadow spoonbill is still around this morning (per Pete Styles)

No sign mid morning (per Richard Foster)

Photo (c) Pete Styles

Spoonbill Comparison

With the two sets of spoonbill sightings yesterday in the county one could wonder whether the Port Meadow bird was one of the party of three that were at 1066 earlier. By looking at the bill pattern there was only one of the 1066 Three that it could have been (the middle bird) so I've done a more detailed comparison photo below. Although the bills are at different angles there seems to be subtle differences in the pattern of yellow at the end of the bill. It's also difficult to judge but the 1066 bird doesn't seem to have much of a crest and has darker markings under the chin (c.f. the photos on Port Meadow Birding). All this would lead to the conclusion that this was a different bird.

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

Spoonbill Port Meadow

This evening on Port Meadow a spoonbill at the North end of the floods. It looked settled and like it was going to go to sleep there.

Also
2 little ringed plover
5 oystercatchers

Some video of the spoonbill feeding (c) Adam Hartley

More to follow at Port Meadow Birding

1066 7th June

Spoonbill 2 Adults and 1 Juv

Spoonbills at 1066

Three spoonbills reported at 1066 at 13:18

They flew off high to the west at 16:30

1066 Viewing & Access (A Reminder)

1066 is the name given to the wetland north of the B4016 between Drayton and Sutton Courtenay. This is a private site with no public access but more importantly has vulnerable breeding birds prone to disturbance. Despite this, several people have been noted walking down to the waters edge. We have received an appeal from the landowner for birders to view only from the road and on no account enter the field. Please adhere to this request. The water levels of this fabulous piece of habitat are managed specifically for birds and we do not want to upset the landowner and risk jeopardizing the continued maintenance of this valuable site. So for the sake of the birds please keep out. Obviously not every birder in the county will see this message so if you visit 1066 and see someone going where they’ve been asked not to, please point out the error of their ways.

Otmoor.A.M. 7th June.

1 Curlew
1 Snipe (drumming)
1 Raven
3 Hobby
1 L.R.Plover
1 Turtle Dove
4 Redshank

June 7th. Assorted

At Buscot again this morning Turtle Dove close to Weir Car Park
At grafton Lock Bullfinch - 4 Tree Sparrows - R.L.Partridge

Barry Hudson

Monday, 6 June 2011

Port Meadow: 6th June

Port Meadow
Hobby
Greenshank
4 Little Ringed Plover

Richard Foster

Aythya Hybrid at Buscot

There is currently an interesting Aythya hybrid on the lake at Buscot Park visible from the bridge along the bridleway which run south from the A417 3 kms west of Faringdon (SU 252969). From a distance it superficially resembles a drake Redhead but on closer inspection there's a lot wrong with it, not least when it flies. It spends much of the time with a drake Pochard. Something of interest though in these quiet times locally.

Sunday, 5 June 2011

Belated Spoonbill

Received a belated report today of a Spoonbill, present last Saturday (28th May) on the small pools to the west of Mackney Lane, Brightwell-cum-Sotwell. No sign since.