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For questions you can contact Adam at: adamchartley "at" gmail "dot" com or Jason at: jasoncppk "at" yahoo "dot" co "dot" uk

Tuesday 30 April 2013

April 2013 Round-up

 The Otmoor Ferruginous Duck by Andy Last

This month a belated spring finally arrived and with it a wave of migrants, all bunched together as the weather bottleneck finally unwound. Our star bird from last month, the Ferruginous Duck, hung around till the 9th but apart from that this month was noticeable for its lack of proper scare or rare birds. There was a frustratingly brief sighting of a county Mega in the form of a Ring-billed Gull that eluded all but the finder but apart from that there hasn't really been much that would be of interest at a national level this month. Therefore county birders had to occupy themselves with the passage migrants that were moving through the county.

At the start of the month there was another frustrating bird in the form of an elusive Lapland Bunting at Churn that only a few people managed to see. Thankfully the recent long-stayer at Farmoor in 2011 meant that it wasn't quite the grip-fest that it could have been. The Slavonian Grebe at Farmoor just made it into the new month before departing and the aforementioned Ring-billed Gull was found by Nic Hallam on the 2nd in the evening roost though not seen subsequently despite extensive searching by a large crowd. The long-staying and much admired Black Redstart hung around at Farmoor until about the 6th before moving onwards. On the 5th Port Meadow was graced with yet another pair of Avocets making a tally of 10 for this species on that site for this year, an amazing record for what is normally a rather scarce county bird. A few lingering Waxwings were seen on the 4th and 5th in Oxford before heading off North. Hawfinches are normally winter birds in the county but it wasn't until this month that they were reported in their usual place at Blenheim and in quite good numbers with a peak count of 18 birds on the 12th. It was also a good year for the Ring Ouzel passage including a very tame female bird at Linky Down that allowed very close approach and resulting in some excellent photos from the various county photographers. One of the memorable parts of this month was the good number of records of Pied Flycatcher. This is normally a rather scarce bird in the county which is recorded more or less annually but is very hard to twitch so a very confiding bird in Oxford behind the ice rink which was found on the 18th and actually stayed put for the whole of the next day was much enjoyed. Apart from this bird there were a couple of other records though they were the more usual untwitchable ones. Also worthy of note were a couple of Tree Pipit records, chiefly because rather than being fly-overs they were actually seen rather well, one at Otmoor and one in Burgess Field on Port Meadow, the latter showing well on the 19th down to about 10 yards. It was a good month for Common Redstarts with a good inland passage taking place over much of central England and Oxford got its fair share. Burgess Field had the highest count with four birds present on the 16th though various other county sites also got in on the act. It was a good month for Blue-headed and Channel Wagtails with several sightings noted in amongst the Yellow Wagtail passage at Farmoor. Also at Farmoor were a couple of Water Pipit sightings from the 8th to the 11th as well as the usual Tern passage with Black and Arctic Terns seen during this month in moderate numbers though there was just a single Sandwich Tern sighting this month. A singing male Wood Warbler (another very hard to twitch bird for the county) was found by Ben Carpenter on the 25th by the Thames at Abingdon though it proved to be untwitchable and had moved on before anyone else could see it. Either the same or another bird was seen later the same day along the Cherwell in Oxford but unfortunately the news only got out rather belatedly. A lovely female Dotterel just over the border at Bury Down proved popular with many of the county's birders and makes it into this report by virtue of a brief sortie over the border into Oxon airspace before returning to Berkshire. Finally, a Little Stint on Port Meadow on the 29th was a nice spring record. So all in all some nice passage birds but nothing really out of the ordinary that was twitchable.  Let's hope for a really good May.

I should also mention the amazing feat of Tom Wickens who likes to keep himself occupied not only by county year listing but also by county month listing. This month he managed to beat his all-time record with an astonishing count of 146 county birds within this month. Truly an amazing feat!



Linky Down Ring Ouzel (c) Wayne Bull


 Back In Time by Paul Chandler

"Thrush bonanza"

We arrived on Scilly on October 8th 1999 to the prospect of some good birds; we arrived at the airport on St Mary’s and were keen to get going. We just dumped our luggage at the flat and went down to the quay straight away and boarded an inter-island boat for St Agnes where a Siberian Thrush was being seen. We arrived on Aggie and walked to the island of Gugh over the sand bar (that is reachable at low tide) where the bird was being seen in a small plantation. Milling around looking for about 20 minutes when a shout went up that the bird was flying, which it did, immediately past us. Great flight views were obtained and the bird then flew out of sight and that was that. The next bird to go for was a Short-toed Eagle that had taken up residency on the Eastern Isles. A boat was organised and Martin and I decided to go for it.
A nice steady boat ride out to the Eastern Isles produced the bird sat on one of the rocky outcrops (we did not land). With 2 good birds seen we decided to get back to the flat to get organised and get some food in. Within 4 hours of landing on Scilly we had seen Siberian Thrush, Short-toed Eagle, Peregrine and Hen Harrier. The Eagle stayed around and we saw it several more times over the islands.
There was also a White’s Thrush on St Agnes though whether it was there when we went for the “Sibe” I don’t remember but the following day we were back on St Agnes where fortunately enough we got good views of the elusive White’s Thrush and an expected Red-breasted Flycatcher. We then saw the White’s on 2 more occasions that week a great bird to see.
Over the following week only one of our group had not seen the White’s and that was Lew. The best moment of this was Lew spent quite a few hours looking for the White’s but was having no luck. Later one evening Lew was reviewing his video footage on the TV from the days birding and the White’s Thrush appeared on the TV screen! What! It turned out that Lew had left his video running while he walked over to talk to someone and the Thrush had walked through the field of view in the area his video was trained on. Fortunately he saw it later in the week but that would have been ironic if he had not seen it.

Friday the 15th dawned and we were out birding when a call went up for a male Blue Rock Thrush at Porthloo. Fortunately we were not too far away and got there fairly quickly and the thrush was in view and it was a cracking male. In time several hundred birders had turned up and most had now seen Siberian Thrush, White’s Thrush and now Blue Rock Thrush all within a week, that’s Scilly for you.
Come the end of the holiday we were waiting at the airport for the plane back to the mainland when a shout went up for a Chimney Swift over St Mary’s we rushed out of the departure lounge and as we were on high ground we might be in with a chance as we still had a little time before the plane went. True to form our luck held and the Swift duly performed.
Over the 2 weeks the islands were blessed with quite a few other rare and scarce birds that were duly seen by all of us. Upland Sandpiper, Red-backed Shrike, Siberian Stonechat, Radde’s Warbler, Pallas’s Warbler, Yellow-browed Warbler, Firecrest, Ring Ouzel, Long-eared Owl etc and rounded off with a Red-flanked Bluetail at Rame head in Cornwall on the way home, also several sightings of Monarch Butterfly on the islands and many other common migrants. That 2 week trip had 9 Thrush species and 3 ticks (the 3 thrushes for me) seen on Scilly which made an excellent 2 week holiday. Another great Scilly trip and looking forward to more.
 

Port Meadow: 30th April

Port Meadow
2 Shelduck
Common Sandpiper
5 Little Ringed Plover

Alex Martin & Adam Hartley

Balscote: Balscote Quarry: 30th April

Balscote: Balscote Quarry
2 Common Sandpiper
2 Little Ringed Plover

Mark Ribbons

Wantage: 29th April

Wantage
Grasshopper Warbler: Seen briefly at bottom of hill near Stockham Farm, close to canal footpath junction. SU390887.

Leo Bateman

Farmoor Tuesday 30th April

16 Arctic Terns on F2 at Farmoor this morning (per Dai John)

Monday 29 April 2013


Farmoor Birds (c) Mark Chivers

Farmoor Res 1500-1600 29th April

Arctic Tern 2
White Wagtail 8
Yellow Wagtail 2
Common Swift 40+

Otmoor: 29th April

Otmoor
Merlin: male. Seen twice flying from Ashgrave To Big Otmoor then 20mins later flying back to Ashgrave each time being mobbed by Lapwings.
Hobby: Noke.
Sparrowhawk: male.
10 Wheatear: In field with black sheep (Noke farm).
Whinchat: male. In field with Wheatears.
Black-tailed Godwit: Big Otmoor.
Ringed Plover: flying from Ashgrave to Closes.

Peter Coombes

Farmoor 29th April

4 Arctic Terns (per RBA)

29th April Port Meadow: Little Stint

Little Stint - found by Steve Lavington, half way along the West Shore of the floods
Little Ringed Plover
Black-tailed Godwit
2 Shelduck
Yellow Wagtails

Steve Lavington & Gnome

still present late afternoon

per Alex Martin & Liam Langley


iPhone video (c) Alex Martin

Sunday 28 April 2013

Farmoor 28th April

 Farmoor at lunchtime  -  
100+ Swifts,
1 Oystercatcher,
2 Dunlin,
3 Yellow Wagtails.

per Jon Mercer
 
 (c) Jonathan Mercer

Grimsbury Reservoir 28th April

1 oystercater
7 common sandpiper
 swifts
1 little owl.
Also 2 wheatear at the new pool along the canal.


per Clive Payne

This morning

1 Arctic Tern
2 Swift
2 Sedge Warbler
1+ Reed Warbler
Kingfisher at dam end

per Tim Clark

Port Meadow: 28th April

Black-tailed Godwit
4 Dunlin
3 Common Tern
Hobby
2 Shelduck

Adam Hartley & Liam Langley

Letcombe Basset 28/04/13

Somewhat embarrassed to post this given the stunning images captured this spring...
Nonetheless, here's Greater Wantageshire's very own Ring Ouzel.

Wendlebury Meads: 28th April

28th April

Wendlebury Meads
2 Curlew: Pair of birds mobbing passing carrion crows.
2 Ruddy Shelduck: At a farm pond not far from the main farmhouse, but clearly free-winged.

Tom Evans

Bury Downs 27th April

Dotterel still present this morning just over the border in Berkshire

Per Ewan Urquhart

Sent from my iPhone

Parsonage Moor: 27th April

Parsonage Moor
Marsh Harrier: Approached from S. Dropped to below tree line and briefly circled NW end of reserve, including short (dangly foot, clumsy!) hover, then up over the trees away to North. Dark bird, poor light, no closer than 200M view.

Mark Merritt

Wolvercote: 28th April

Wolvercote
Brambling: fem. on nyjer feeder. SP490099.

Steve Goddard

Saturday 27 April 2013

Port Meadow 27th April

2 Common Sandpiper
4 Dunlin
2 Shelduck
2 Little Ringed Plover

Steve Lavington & Adam Hartley

Otmoor: Joseph's Stone: 27th April

Otmoor: Joseph's Stone
8 Wheatear: 2m 6f.
2 Whinchat

Barry Batchelor

Otmoor & Burgess Field 27th April

Sedge Warbler @ Otmoor RSPB

Common Whitethroat @ Burgess Field

Bury Down 27th April

Dotterel in Oxfordshire




Dotterel back in Berkshire

Lark Hill 27th April

Whinchat (m)
Redstart (m)
5 Wheatear (3m,2f - one male apparent Greenland-type)
3 Corn Bunting
Yellow Wagtail
Willow Warbler

Dotterel: not quite Oxon




A female Dotterel near West Ilsley at Bury Down 400m into Berkshire. Always distant. Apparently flew north at 11.10 presumably into Oxon.

Bird still present at 6.15pm. Was seen to fly into Oxon earlier!

Friday 26 April 2013

Wood Warbler, Oxford

Mike Wilson had a singing Wood Warbler close to the path, King's Mill end of Mesopotamia in Oxford this morning.

About here I'm guessing. This could well be this morning's Abingdon bird making its way up the Thames and then turning off to follow the Cherwell - Gnome

Otmoor.A.M. 26th April.

2 Curlew
1 Greenshank
14+ Little Egret
1 Oystercatcher
2 Wheatear
12+ Black-tailed Godwit
1 Sparrowhawk (M)
5 Ringed Plover
1 Raven
2 Hobby.

Wantage: Lark Hill: 25th April

Wantage: Lark Hill
2 Corn Bunting
4 Grey Partridge
6 Wheatear: 2m, 4f.

Leo Bateman

Abingdon: Wood Warbler

Ben Carpenter has found a Wood Warbler in Barton Fields, Abingdon by the Thames (between Barton Lane and the river) at 7am.

"It was just a bit beyond Barton Fields along the Thames Path to the east; at grid reference SU51299704 (at the end of the long straight part of the path which is largely enclosed with hawthorn, blackthorn and willows, and beside a ditch). Singing high in a willow on the right.  Also present a Mandarin in the Thames."

No further sign by 9am though lots of common warblers singing including Garden Warbler. Also Cuckoo calling along the Thames

Thursday 25 April 2013

Port Meadow 25th April

Adult Little Gull on floods this morning
5 Little Egrets this morning
14 Black-tailed Godwits this evening
1 Shelduck
Whimbrel
Little Ringed Plover
3 Swifts

Burgess Field
11 singing Whitethroat
1 or 2 Lesser Whitethroat
2 Reed Warblers
1 Sedge Warbler
1 Raven over

Ewan Urquhart, Adam Hartley, Steve Lavington

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 25th April

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
Oystercatcher
Cuckoo
2 Grasshopper Warbler: singing in the car park field.

Steve Roby

Grimsbury Reservoir: 25th April

Grimsbury Reservoir
2 White Wagtail
4 Common Sandpiper

Gareth Blockley

Otmoor 25th April

Garden Warbler 1m singing in blackthorns by car park and then flew off towards Roman Way
Grasshopper Warbler 3m reeling in car park field
Cuckoo 1

Redstart: male. Along the path to the 1st screen.
Raven
3 Wheatear
Hobby: Ashgrave.

Ewan Urquhart & Peter Coombes

 Redstart  (c) Peter Coombes

Farmoor 25th April

4 Black Tern
1 Little Gull
3 Ringed Plover
5 Dunlin
2 Common Sandpiper
3 Curlew
1 Grasshopper Warbler
1 Redpoll
3 Wheatear

Dave Daniels & Dai.

 

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Stonesfield: Stonesfield Common: 24th April

Stonesfield: Stonesfield Common
3 Blackcap
4 Whitethroat
2 Raven: Over.
3 Wheatear: In stoney field south of common.

Paul Wren

Port Meadow: 24th April

Port Meadow
2 Little Ringed Plover
8 Yellow Wagtail
White Wagtail
Common Tern
The first Mallard ducklings of the year

Port Meadow: Burgess Field Nature Park
2 Whinchat: reported by Ben Sandford-Smith.

Adam Hartley

Otmoor.A.M. 24th April.

2 Oystercatcher
14 Black-tailed Godwit (still)
Cuckoo

1 Peregrine
1 Wheatear
   (per Peter Coombes).

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Otmoor Tuesday 23rd evening


Yellow Wagtail     around 35 roosting in the reed bed
Barn Owl      showing well around the reserve again
Black-tailed Godwit    approx 20 birds on Ashgrave


Balscote Quarry 23rd April

Little Ringed Plover 2
Common Snipe 3
Yellow Wagtail 10 (9m1f)
Tree Sparrow 4+
Green Woodpecker 2
Yellowhammer 5
Common Whitethroat 2

Otmoor: 23rd April

Otmoor
5 Buzzard
Marsh Harrier: fem.
Peregrine
Oystercatcher
7 Lesser Whitethroat
Garganey
Swift: over Greenaways.
Wheatear
Yellow Wagtail

Peter Coombes

 Sedge Warbler (c) Terry Sherlock

Port Meadow 23rd April

Port Meadow: Burgess Field Nature Park
2 Whinchat

Port Meadow
Common Sandpiper: Along the Castle Mill Stream.

Adam Hartley

Port Meadow
2 Dunlin: The only waders on the meadow this morning. About 50 ducks, mainly mallards and teal, and about 30 gulls. No sign of the Shelduck.

Alex Martin 

Rushy Common: 23rd April

Rushy Common
Osprey

Paul Willis

Otmoor 23rd April

Grasshopper Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat
Cuckoo
Oystercatcher
+all the usual stuff

Justin Taylor

Monday 22 April 2013

Otmoor: 22nd April

Otmoor
3 Grasshopper Warbler: Car Park field.

Peter Coombes

Nightingale 22nd April

1 Heard singing at 5 a.m this morning on private MOD land in Upper Arncott.

Stonesfield: Stonesfield Common: 22nd April

Stonesfield: Stonesfield Common
2 Blackcap
3 Chiffchaff
4 Whitethroat
Wheatear: In stoney field south of the common.

Paul Wren

Otmoor.A.M.22nd.April.

1 Whimbrel.
2 Curlew
1 Gropper (car park field)
1 Lesser Whitethroat.

 Lesser Whitethroat (c) Nick Truby

South Leigh: 21st April

South Leigh
Cuckoo

Richard Catling

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 21st April

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
Cuckoo: Heard (several times) only somewhere near Noke Wood area.

Nick Truby

Sunday 21 April 2013

Port Meadow: 21st April

Port Meadow
14 Yellow Wagtail
2 Shelduck
10 Golden Plover

Adam Hartley

Farmoor 21st April



The Black-headed Gull passage more or less over. The first summer Mediterranean Gull still around. 5 Arctic Terns this evening. Yellow Wagtail count up to 24, including the above "Channel" Wagtail.

Cowlease Wood: 21st April

Cowlease Wood
7 Common Crossbill

Paul Jepson

Lollingdon hill, Cholsey

Redstart still present this morning, no sign later.
Two Wheatear (2)
Raven flyover
Blackcap
Fieldfare
5 Corn Bunting

River Thames: Iffley to Abingdon: 20th April

River Thames: Iffley to Abingdon
4 Cuckoo: various locations between Radley and Oxford.
Tom Wickens

Blenheim: Blenheim Lake: 20th April

Blenheim: Blenheim Lake
5 Grey Heron: At least 2 occupied nests on an island in the lake.

Tom Evans

Pixey Mead: 21st April

21st April

Pixey Mead
2 Curlew: One watched feeding. Then when two ravens flew by a second curlew appeared and both engaged in frenzied aerial defensive manoeuvres. The ravens found the nest though and carried off an egg. I was well distant, watching (horrified!) through a scope.

Yarnton Mead
4 Curlew: Confirmed as different from the two birds at Pixey Mead. No evidence of incubation - all four birds feeding, associating as two pairs.
2 Oystercatcher: Present just across Thames from the Mead.

Cassington GPs
Whimbrel: Flew over calling.

Tom Evans

Grove: Airfield: 21st April

Grove: Airfield
Reed Warbler
Lesser Whitethroat

Wantage: Lark Hill
Whinchat: male.
12 Wheatear: 7m, 5f.
Stonechat: male.
2 Yellow Wagtail
2 Corn Bunting
4 Grey Partridge

Leo Bateman

Otmoor 21st April



 Chiffchaff (c) W P Bull



Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 21st April

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
Grasshopper Warbler: Showing well from gate halfway up car park field.
Whinchat: Path to first screen at 07:30.
Marsh Harrier: fem. Hunting over reedbed 07:00-45.

Nick Truby

Saturday 20 April 2013

Aston Upthorpe 20th April

 Wheatear (c) W P Bull

Lollingdon hill

3 Yellow Wagtail (flyover)
Tree Pipit (flyover)
5 Wheatear (2 & 3)
Redstart
(in 4 hours)

Farmoor 20th April


In addition to Gareths sightings there was a Grasshopper Warbler reeling at Pinkhill Lock Meadow, a Cuckoo calling at Pinkhill early morning, the Oystercatcher showed well in the morning.

Also present:

Common Sandpiper
Dunlin
Whitethroat - singing male
Sedge Warbler singing
Kingfisher 2
Snipe 1


Matt Prior

Churn: 20th April

Churn
2 Curlew
2 Grey Partridge
2 Red-legged Partridge
4 Wheatear: 2m, 2f.
Corn Bunting

Peter Law

Farmoor: 20th April

1 Little Gull - adult
11 'commic' terns - mostly Common but at least 2 Arctic
9 Yellow Wagtails - causeway
2+ White Wagtails
Oystercatcher - heard but not seen (maybe flew over?)

GB and Tom Coyne


Yellow Wagtails. Both pictures (c) Tom Coyne

Port Meadow: 20th April

14 Black-tailed Godwit (there at c.13:00 but not there at c.14:30)
1 Little Ringed Plover
2 Shelduck - pair
2 Yellow Wagtails
2 White Wagtails

Burgess Field NR
4+ Whitethroats
1 male Redstart in SE corner in morning (per Liam Langley)
but no further sign of any Redstarts 13:00 to 14:30

GB and Tom Coyne

Grimsbury Reservoir: 20th April

Lesser Whitethroat - male along canal in scrub around canal overflow channel
4 Common Whitethroat - 3 males
3 Sedge Warbler - males
2 Wheatear - pair at new pool along canal (later 3 there Clive Payne)
2 Common Sandpipers - new pool along canal (Clive Payne)
2 Raven - over (Clive Payne)
4 Yellow Wagtails - reservoir (later 6 at new pool along canal Clive Payne)
5+ White Wagtails
12+ Willow Warbler
6+ Blackcap
3+ Meadow Pipit

GB and Tom Coyne
Otmoor Gropper (c) Terry Sherlock

Central Oxford: Pied Flycatcher News

No sign of the male Pied Flycatcher behind the ice rink between 11:30 and 12:30 (Gareth Blockley)

Devil's Punchbowl: 20th April

Devil's Punchbowl
4 Corn Bunting: 3 singing males.
Whinchat: f.
6 Wheatear: 3m3f.

Mark Merritt
I'll be away until the 12th of May so please send any county bird news or photo's to Adam at  adamchartley'at'gmail.com
(if you are lucky enough to find something really really rare during this time... suppress it! ;-)

Cheers

Badger.

Friday 19 April 2013

Port Meadow 19th April

Port Meadow

Black tailed Godwit 22
Bar tailed Godwit 1
Little Ringed Plover 1+
Common Sandpiper 1
Little Egret 1
Yellow Wagtail 9

Burgess Field
Common Redstart 2f
Common Whitethroat 8
Willow Warbler 11+ singing males
Grasshopper Warbler 1
Whinchat 1
Lesser Redpoll 1
Tree Pipit 1
Green Woodpecker 1
Jay 2

Ewan Urquhart, Tom Wickens, Gnome, Liam Langley, Andrew Clark

 The Tree Pipit (ID confirmed by Ian Lewington) (c) Gnome

Grimsbury Reservoir: 19th April

Grimsbury Reservoir
8 Whimbrel
5 White Wagtail

Mark Ribbons

Balscote: Balscote Quarry: 19th April

Balscote: Balscote Quarry
Whinchat: m. In field next to Reserve near puddle.
Common Sandpiper
Dunlin
4 Little Ringed Plover
4 White Wagtail
12 Tree Sparrow

Mark Ribbons

Farmoor, 19th April





An excellent Arctic Tern passage all week with 15+  today. Several birds alighted on the causeway for short periods before resuming feeding. 




Six Dunlin on the causeway plus a Little Ringed Plover. The first winter Mediterranean Gull on F.2 all day plus two Little Gulls (adult and first summer). 22+ Yellow Wagtails including a 'Channel Wagtail' near the bus shelter, perhaps the same as the one seen on 16th...


Pied Flycatcher Central Oxford

The Pied Flycatcher is still behind the ice rink near the footbridge about here & showing really well.

Still Showing very well 19:30 (per Dave Lowe)

Gnome

 (c) Gnome

Farmoor Reservoir: 19th April

Farmoor Reservoir
6 Dunlin
3 Common Sandpiper
17 Yellow Wagtail

Peter Law

Cholsey

Lollingdon hill

Wheatear (5 & 3)
Redstart

Cholsey hill

2 Wheatear (2♂)

Milton Park: 19 April

My usual lunchtime walk produced something of a surprise today:

Redstart - 1 female by the footbridge over the stream about here SU493920

Shotover 19th April

Osprey east of Oxford flew over Shotover (per RBA)

Didcot 18th/19th April



This 1st summer male Pied Flycatcher was unfortunately in a private garden.

Otmoor 19th April am

Car Park Field
Whinchat (m)
3+ Groppers
3+ Whitethroat
5+ Willow warblers and Chiffys
Probable Tree Pipit first seen last evening re found today
Cuckoo


Tree Pipit (c) T.S
 


Long Meadow
Redstart (f)

MOD land (per RSPB)

Garganey(m)
Mandarin
Lesser whitethroat

Reed and Sedge Warblers in ditches.

Thursday 18 April 2013

Farmoor 18th April


Blue-headed Wagtail 

Yellow Wagtail

White Wagtail





Common Tern

Common Tern

Arctic Tern
Arctic Tern
15 Arctic Tern, 10 Common Tern, 2 Common Swift, 4 Common Sandpiper, Ringed Plover, Greenshank over.

Redstart still near Shrike Meadow (per Dai)

Witney Lake 18th April

Redstart 3 (1m) 
3 Blackcaps
Common Tern
60+ Swallows

18:00-19:30 (Keith Clack)

Cotswold Wildlife Park nr Burford 18th April


Pied flycatcher (male) at the Cotswold Wildlife Park today (until at least 4.50 p.m.)
-about 15 yards from the vultures' cage.

Paul Robinson.
Male Pied Fly both pictures taken by Paul Robinsons son (c)

Grimsbury Reservoir: 18th April

Grimsbury Reservoir
3 Arctic Tern: Two this evening, which both left around 19:30. Then another dropped in just after 20:00. Maybe a sign that several have passed through during the day?.
Little Egret: Flew over south west towards town.

Gareth Blockley

Also worth noting - everything (e.g. hirundines and wagtails) had also cleared out by 19:30

Port Meadow: 18th April

Port Meadow
22 Black-tailed Godwit
Bar-tailed Godwit
2 Common Sandpiper
8 Yellow Wagtail

Port Meadow: Burgess Field Nature Park
Redstart: f.

Adam Hartley & Liam Langley

Central Oxford 18th April: Pied Flycatcher

Tom Wickens has just found a male Pied Flycatcher in the parkland area by the Thames behind the Oxford Ice Rink on Oxpens Road (time about 18:44)

Still present 19:15 (per Steve Roby)

Linky Down: 18th April

Linky Down
2 Ring Ouzel: male.

Mike Pennick

Sonning Eye 18th April

18th April

Sonning Eye
7 Arctic tern
1 Yellow wag
2 Mandarin

Hugh

Grimsbury Reservoir: 18th April

Grimsbury Reservoir
Arctic Tern
Sedge Warbler: m.
6 White Wagtail: up to 10 but hard to count as mobile.
3 Yellow Wagtail
65 Sand Martin: 65+.
8 House Martin
25 Swallow: 25+.

Gareth Blockley

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Linky Down 17th April

Ring Ouzel this evening at Linky Down (per RBA)

Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Port Meadow 17th April

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Avocet

Farmoor 17th April

Common Tern

Arctic Tern 4+
Common Tern 6+
Little Gull 4+ (early evening)
Oystercatcher 1
Common Sandpiper 1
White Wagtail 6+
Yellow Wagtail 9


Black-tailed Godwit c24 (Badger, The Wickster, Andy Last)
Golden Plover 40+
Med Gull 1st s (per Nic)
Swift
 
 
Med Gull (c) Nic Hallam
All other photos (c) Ewan