Buscot 30 June

Turtle Dove still present am purring away this morning in sunnier conditions than last week.

(c) Stephen Burch

Peregrine Chipping Norton

There has been a Peregrine Falcon perched on top of Bliss Mill today. Present until 14:11 at least. Seen by recent local hero Steve Akers
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=234290

Gareth

Cowleaze Wood 30 June

Common Crossbill  4+
Siskin 2

Mystery Birder

                                                       Who is today's mystery birder?

Otmoor 30th June

Turtle Dove 4+
Hobby  (also 1 over fields just north of Barton)
Curlew 5
Grasshopper Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat
No sign of yesterdays Knot

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 29th June

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
Turtle Dove: Seen "dusting" on the track in front of 2nd five-bar gate as you leave the car park. Encountered on the way into the reserve and on the way back.
Knot: On 2nd scrape from bridleway then flew west towards wetlands hide.
Lesser Redpoll on feeders.

Nick Truby

Thame: Cuttle Brook: 28th June

Thame: Cuttle Brook
Cuckoo: heard only. Called twice, then once again from vicinity of woodland at Cuttlebrook, adjacent to Pheonix Trail, nr the bridge over the brook.

Sarah Miles

Farmoor 29th June

Juv 'Fire flirt' (c) Dai

Redstart 2 (f & juv) to the west of F2 along the concrete track
c100yds south of the toilet block at 15:23

(per Dai & Dave Daniels)

The Insomniac Birder

Farm Hill, Cholsey 28th June

Yellow Wagtail ♂

Yellow Wagtail ♀

Yellow Wagtails on their breeding ground.

Abingdon: Abingdon Marina: 28th June

Abingdon: Abingdon Marina
Oystercatcher

Dave Godfrey

Lift Wanted
Anyone going for the Little Swift in Liverpool if it stays to the weekend?
If so Keith Clack (clackers) is looking for a lift and happy share the cost of fuel.
077 096 47045

Otmoor 28/6

Red crested pochard still vieweable from first screen, although is moving between channels
Common tern on raft from second screen
Hobby's over all the reserve
Lots of dragonflies and damselflies along the paths, black-tailed skimmer, brown hawker, azure blue, blue-tailed.

Farmoor Reservoir: Pinkhill: 28th June

Farmoor Reservoir: Pinkhill
10 Common Crossbill: 10 flew north over pinkhill calling and a sandwich tern was calling on the res.

(per Ross Crates)

No further sign of reported Sandwich Tern by midday (per Dai)

The Insomniac Birder

Otmoor: 27th June

3 Garganey
6 Wigeon

Joe Harris

Young Peregrine 

Port Meadow 27th June

Little Gull
Little Egret 6
Little Ringed Plover
Oystercatcher

Sydney Penner

Nuneham Courtenay: 27th June

Nuneham Courtenay
3 Grey Partridge: juvs, just to NE of Golden Balls roundabout.

Peter Law

Otmoor 27th June

Red-crested Pochard: male. ecl. Male (Eclipse plumage) 1st screen.

   Whinchat (male) Sw corner greenaways. On fence post

Grass Snake all photos (c) Peter Coombes
Otmoor Birding

Buscot 26th June

Turtle Dove I found the bird at 14:15, purring from the aerial on the house numbered 12 (in the same courtyard as the Manor House, but opposite). It was in the vicinity and in view for about fifteen minutes, at one point flying with a couple of Collared Doves.

Kenneth Winkler

Otmoor 26th June

Saunders Ground
Quail: Heard twice calling from near the bridleway out on Greenways betwen the hide and the Barbara Austin bench late morning but not again before the rain arrived. No sound of the Corncrake anywhere.

John Edwards

Water Rail (swimming between reed beds at 1st screen)
Turtle Dove calling along the Roman Road
Hobby 2 Greenaways

(per Terry Tossel)

Dorchester: Dorchester complex: 25th June

Dorchester: Dorchester complex
3 Egyptian Goose

Thomas Stevenson

25th June Corncrake calling again

One of the six terns (c) Bark

Paul Greenaway has heard the Corncrake calling from the field to the west of the second screen.
Lets hope that it keeps going a bit longer this time.
Bark

Not heard this pm but six Common Terns on the tern raft a bonus.
Bark

25/06/12 11:00a.m
Corncrake heard to the right as you come out onto the bridleway from
the RSPB car park.Did anyone else hear it this morning?.

(per D.Simmons goingbirding)


Also
Raven Over.
Turtle Dove
Grasshopper Warbler

(per Peter Coombes)

Otmoor Birding

Buscot 24th June

The Buscot Turtle Dove was showing between 5:30 pm and 6pm.

Also a Grey Wagtail at Buscot Weir

per Malc Royal

Another Hobby on Otmoor

Black Audi Birding (a new blog)

Ewan 'two eyes' Urquhart has finally put fingers to keyboard to blog 
his tales of birding daring do... 

''Occasionally it would have a Little Swift nightmare, well wouldn't you if you lived in the  sun in some exotic location and ended up in New Brighton?''

More shenanigans including the Little Swift twitch to Liverpool at http://blackaudibirding.blogspot.co.uk/

Goring Lock 24th June

Egyptian Goose
Hobby

(per Ralph Watts)

Hobby on Otmoor

Otmoor 23rd June am

Blackcap - Roman Road

Sedge Warbler - Bridle way

Goldfinch - near 1st screen

Photos (c) Nigel Forrow

Buscot 23 June

(c) Stephen Burch. www.stephenburch.com

Henley Road GPs: 23rd June

Henley Road GPs
Redshank

Sonning Eye GPs
2 Hobby

Marek Walford

Turtle Dove Buscot Manor House (c) Andy Smith

Banbury 22nd June

Hobby over Bankside checking out house martins.

(per M.Hunt)

Otmoor 21st june am.

No sign of Tuesdays summer plumage Grey Plover on the scrapes.
4 Bullfinch
2 Ravens (one in mid moult missing primaries on both sides)
3 Cuckoos
50+ Lapwings of which 10 were fully fledged juveniles
Bark

Port Meadow: 20th June

Port Meadow
5 Redshank

Adam Hartley

Otmoor 19th June

Snipe drumming - Greenaways (over cattle pens)

Lapwing - Big Otmoor

Linnet - Greenaways (near cattle pens)

Sonning Eye GPs: 20th June

Sonning Eye GPs
Cetti's Warbler: Singing along river Thames by Thames Valley Park and crossed to Oxon side.

Robin Dryden

Shillingford

Hobby

Having a dip in the Thames.

 

Otmoor Turtle Dove (c) Terry Sherlock

Otmoor Birding

Otmoor.A.M. 18th June.

MoD Land:
2 Snipe (drumming)
3 Curlew
1 Water Rail (heard)
Long Meadow:
1 Garden Warbler
1 Sparrowhawk
3 Red Kites
2 Buzzard
1 Lesser Whitethroat.

Port Meadow: 18th June

Port Meadow
Little Gull
Little Egret
6 Common Tern
10 Black-headed Gull: juv. Presumably from a nearby gravel pit?.
17 Gadwall

Gareth Blockley

Kingham June 17

Every garden should have one!

Otmoor 17th June

Chiffchaff - Bridle way

Red Kite buzzed by Lapwing after taking a chick - Big Otmoor

Reed Bunting - Greenaways

Reed Warbler - Greenaways

Meadow Pipit hovering - Big Otmoor

Photos (c) Nigel Forrow

Otmoor 17th June

Peregrine 1 (juv)
Hobby 4
Turtle Dove
Grasshopper Warbler 2 (1 along track to 1st screen)
Garden Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat
Cuckoo
Again no sign of the Corncrake

Otmoor Birding

Farmoor 17th June

17 Common Tern resting along the causeway.
1 Little Egret Pinkhill.

The Insomniac Birder

Devil's Punchbowl: 17th June

Devil's Punchbowl
2 Raven

Letcombe Bassett: Ridgeway above Letcombe Bassett
Curlew: Over field to S. of Ridgeway.
4 Corn Bunting

Mark Merritt

Abingdon: Abingdon Lock: 16th June

Abingdon: Abingdon Lock
Barn Owl: Watched quartering the meadows to the north of the lock.

Rachel Everett

Otmoor: 16th June

Otmoor
Black-tailed Godwit

Barry Batchelor

Kingham 16 June 2012

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker 

Willow Tit

Willow Tit at Grimsbury res in the wood this morning. Didn't come through from Goingbirding?

Gareth

Grimsbury Reservoir: 16th June

Grimsbury Reservoir
Reed Warbler: m. Singing along the canal.

Gareth Blockley

Otmoor 16th June

No 'sight' or sound of the Corncrake by 11:00 in blustery conditions.
Hobby
Turtle Dove
Cuckoo

Otmoor Birding

Willow Warbler

Whitecross Green Wood: 15th June

Turtle Dove: purring away (heard only).

No sign of any Black Hairstreaks

Adam Hartley

Otmoor 15th June

Corncrake heard from first screen this morning approx 9.20am.
Probably in NW corner of Greenaways towards reedbed.
Didn't call again so no exact location noted.

(per Richard Ebbs Oxonbirds)

Otmoor 14th June

Corncrake still calling from Greenaways at 16:10 (heard only).
(per RBA)

Corncrake calling (Greenaways) in grass top of path to screens near gate
(Right next to rspb blue sign) One lucky birder saw it cross the path into
bushes heading towards big Otmoor. ) 09:45 (per Peter Coombes)


Otmoor Birding

Garsington 14th June

Raven near Lower Farm on B480 (per Peter Law)

Lewknor
Turtle Dove 2 (per R.Broughton Oxonbirds)

Otmoor.A.M. 14th June.

Oddington End:
 2 Turtle Doves, (feeding by the bridge)
 1 Garden Warbler (by Dutch barn)
 2 Curlew (Hundred Acres)
 1 Raven (over)

Port Meadow: 13th June

Port Meadow
2 Oystercatcher
Little Gull: 1s.
Red-crested Pochard: m.

Adam Hartley

Radley Large Wood: 13th June

Radley Large Wood
Cuckoo: m. in fields along Sugworth Lane.

John Hillsdon

Otmoor 13th June

Corncrake still calling from Greenaways 19:20 (per Clackers)

still on Greenaways this morning at 5a.m (heard only)
(per Dave Lowe)

Still calling on Greenaways at 11:45 (heard only)
(per Dave Daniells)

Still calling about 100 yards west of the bench at 4:40 p.m.
(per Lee Evans)

Quail Calling on Closes.
4 Turtle Dove
Grasshopper Warbler

(per Peter Coombes & Lee Evans)

Abingdon: Abingdon Marina: 13th June

Abingdon: Abingdon Marina
2 Cetti's Warbler: mobile, heard only.

Peter Law

Corncrake Otmoor 12th June

A Corncrake has been heard calling intermittently from the area to the west of the two new scrapes on Greenaways. As is to be expected this is a heard only record!

Peter

Still calling at 5 p.m. though it appears to be in deep cover with little chance of actually seeing it.
Gnome


Still calling intermittently 18:15 but hasn't once been seen  (Badger) 

Otmoor Birding

Farnborough: 12th June

Farnborough
Turtle Dove

Michael Hunt

Wolvercote: 12th June

Wolvercote
Siskin: ad male; breeding colours. Feeding in back garden!.

Steve Goddard

A New Oxon Blog!

Barry Hudson has launched a superb new county blog entitled "The Oxon Feather - Wildlife in Rural Oxfordshire" which can be found here.

The profile description is:

OXON FEATHER is a personal birding blog, from a birder who is not a great twitcher as my identification skills leave a lot to be desired, and my real interest lies in the birds we used to be able to take for granted but now need our help, including many farmland species, among the birds I have on my help list are : Turtle Dove, Lesser-Spotted Woodpecker, Nightingale, Tree Sparrow, Willow Tit and Grey Partridge to name just a few. I retired from farming about 2004 and retain many farming contacts some of them rather sensitive to strangers, so if I am sometimes unable to name sites I hope you will understand, as my priority is firstly the welfare of the birds and secondly to respect the confidence placed on me by my contacts

We all wish Barry every success with what I'm sure will be a great blog.

Ashbury: 10th June

Ashbury
5 Corn Bunting

Mark Merritt

Oxon Downs 10th June

No sign of yesterdays tagged Great Bustard.

Port Meadow: 9th June

Port Meadow
Little Gull: 1s.
2 Shelduck
Red-crested Pochard: m.

Adam Hartley

The Ridgeway at Streatley 9th June

Great Bustard

Great Bustard

Tawny Owl juv

Great Bustard just over the border in Berkshire. Seen in with sheep, flushed by a sheepdog and flew into Oxfordshire and not relocated. This is a tagged bird "White 17 on a black background", a first summer female.

Farmoor 9 June

Many Swifts, also Swallows, House Martins and a few Sand Martins + Common Tern

Swift (c) Stephen Burch

Otmoor 9th June

Dunlin
L.R.P 2
Hobby
Little Egret 2
Tawny Owl
Quail (h)
Turtle Dove 1+
Cuckoo 2+
Gropper 1

Bark was once again interviewed on 
Radio Oxford this morning talking 
about the flora & fauna to be seen on 
Otmoor.For those who missed it, its 
available to listen to again here
BBC Radio Oxford 


Otmoor Birding

Henley Road GPs: 8th June

Henley Road GPs
7 Egyptian Goose

Marek Walford

Otmoor 6th June PM

1 Quail (Calling on Closes)
1 Dunlin
2 LRP
1 Little Egret
1 Turtle Dove
3 Cuckoo
1 Barn Owl
1 Oystercatcher
4 Curlew
2 Gropper

Farmoor 6th June

Sanderling 11 along causeway at 08:50 (per Dai)
Still present at 12:30 (per Peter Law)

(c) Dai

The Insomniac Birder

(c) George Brooks

Churn: 5th June

Churn
3 Corn Bunting

Steve Goddard

Port Meadow: 5th June

Port Meadow
Little Gull
58 Mute Swan
Red Kite

Sydney Penner

Otmoor.A.M. 5th June.

Quail (calling on Closes)
2 Raven (over Greenaways)
1 Turtle Dove (Bridleway)
2 L.R.Plover Big Otmoor scrape)
2 Dunlin (Big Otmoor scrape)
No sign of Little Stints.

Port Meadow: 4th June

Port Meadow
3 Dunlin
2 Shelduck
Red-crested Pochard: m.
Little Gull: 1s.
Yellow-legged gull

Adam Hartley

Otmoor Monday 4th

Some shots of the six Little Stints and one Dunlin on Otmoor this morning. They were moving between the two scrapes on Big Otmoor better pictures to follow on the blog

Stints and Dunlin (c) Peter Barker

(c) Derek Woodard

Little Stint 6
Dunlin 1
Little-ringed Plover 2
Little Egret 5
Quail (h) off Otmoor Lane (per The Wickster)

Otmoor Birding

Rushy Common 4th June

Peregrine
Red-crested Pochard 5
Cuckoo

(per Clackers)

Otmoor 4th June

5 breeding plumage little stints on Big Otmoor

Per Peter Barker

Turtle Dove Marsh Lane Marston (per Hugh Wiggins Oxonbirds)

Henley Road GPs: 3rd June

3rd June

Henley Road GPs
2 Egyptian Goose

Sonning Eye GPs
2 Oystercatcher
Hobby

2nd June

Crog Hill
Curlew

Marek Walford

Radley 2nd June

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet

Avocet  on the Plover Pit at Radley (per Ben Carpenter)
Still present at 15:20 (per Badger)
Little-ringed Plover
Redshank 2
Lapwing 2+

Access off Thrupp Lane. Park near the Sandles building and take the main 
track past Thrupp Lake (on the right). At the end of the main track, take
the path off to the left opposite the white metal barrier/cycle track.
The small flooded ash pit (Plover Pit) is on the left c100yds.


Third record for Radley and second record this year for the county.

Port Meadow: 2nd June

Port Meadow
16 Ringed Plover
2 Dunlin
2 Shelduck

Adam Hartley

Farmoor 2nd June

Honey Buzzard (flew over heading north approx 14:37 per Dai)
Osprey (09:00-09:15 then flew N/W per The Wickster)
Sanderling 2
Ringed Plover 7
Dunlin 1

More from the Res at
The Insomniac Birder

Turtle Dove purring near Bampton (per Alan Larkman)

Otmoor 2nd June

Quail (calling from The Closes at 13:30)
Ringed Plover 6 (pools on Big Otmoor)
Little-ringed Plover 2
Curlew
Turtle Dove 4
Cuckoo
Grasshopper Warbler 3

Some video on Otmoor Birding

Churn 1st June

The Downs: South of Blewbury
17 Corn Bunting: 14 singing males counted between end of metalled road (Woodway) and the Ridgeway with another 3 in the immediate vicinity of the Ridgeway. SU5383.

The Downs: South of Blewbury
2 Curlew: SU5383.

The Downs: South of Blewbury
2 Grey Partridge: Flushed by dog walker. SU5383.

Mark Merritt

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 1st June

1st June

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
2 Turtle Dove: In trees along main path to hide, plus one purring near car park.
2 Cuckoo: At least two: calling regularly.
Grasshopper Warbler: In reedbed: from path to second screen.

Steve Goddard

Sonning Eye GPs: 1st June

Sonning Eye GPs
2 Oystercatcher: Flew over from the east, calling, and landed on the rowing course bund.

Henley Road GPs
2 Egyptian Goose

Marek Walford

Port Meadow: 1st June

Port Meadow
Little Gull: 1s.
Red-crested Pochard: m.
Little Ringed Plover
6 Ringed Plover
Dunlin
5 Little Egret
51 Mute Swan

Adam Hartley