Farmoor 31st July

Dunlin 4
Turnstone 3 
Sanderling 2
Ringed Plover 2
Common Sandpiper 5
Yellow Wagtail 4

 

The Insomniac Birder

Grimsbury Reservoir: 31st July

Grimsbury Reservoir
2 Common Sandpiper

Banbury
Peregrine: Flew low south over Warwick Road/Southam Road crossroads.

Gareth Blockley

Buscot 31st July

Turtle Dove by the shop and tea room in Buscot this afternoon (per Jon Prowse)

Farmoor 30th July

Dunlin 10
Common Sandpiper 6

(per Andy Last)



Dunlin photo courtesey of Peter Law

Otmoor 30th July

Dunlin 4
Green Sandpiper 7
Redshank 3
Little Egret 3

Purley on Thames 29th July

7 Common Crossbills - flew over south 09:30.
Out of county, but due to the location they almost certainly flew though Oxfordshire!

Barn Owl Radley

More photos from Mark The Early Birder

Farmoor 29th July evening

Common Sandpiper 3+
Dunlin 4

Standlake Pit 60: 27th July

27th July

Standlake Pit 60
Greenshank
2 Common Sandpiper
3 Oystercatcher

Carl Rylett

Aston 28th July

	Redstart 1 (Just tail views in hedgerows near Great Brook) (per J.Dexter)

Rushey Common 28th July

Sightings from this morning

3+ Green Sandpiper
1 Common Sandpiper
2 Ringed Plover
1 Dunlin
2 Little Egret

Per Clackers

Sonning Eye GPs: 27th July

Sonning Eye GPs
21 Egyptian Goose: on the new workings.
Common Sandpiper: on the new workings.

Marek Walford

Farmoor 27th July 2013

 

8 Common Sandpiper

3 Dunlin

2 Redshank

Oystercatcher

Whimbrel

Turnstone

Yellow Wagtail

 

 

Matt Prior

The Downs 27th July

                                          Juvenile Yellow Wags;
                                          at least 21 present, more than half of which were juveniles.

Otmoor. 26th July.

Long Tailed Tit.

                                                     

Whitethroat.

Early evening:  Greenaways, Kingfisher, two together.  Ashgrave, Greenshank. Little Egret x 9.

Farmoor 26th July

Whimbrel F2 tho mobile 09:25 (per Dai) Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Farmoor 25th July

Sandwich Tern 1 Turnstone 1   Sanderling 2 along the Causeway 10 a.m (per Dai) The Insomniac Birder

Bernwood Forest 24th July

Common Crossbill 2
Common Raven 1

Farmoor Oystercatcher

Courtesey of The Early Birder

 



Grimsbury Reservoir: 23rd July

Grimsbury Reservoir
2 Common Sandpiper
Little Ringed Plover

Mark Ribbons

Redstart: Lollingdon hill

Redstart seen and heard this afternoon in the hedge that leads south towards the A417.

Farmoor, 22nd July - 20.00 - 21.00

Five Sandwich Terns (adults). Three Mediterranean Gulls (adults). 1 Black Tern (adult). 50+ Yellow-legged Gulls. 15 Common Terns.

Otmoor. 22nd. July.

One of two Bearded Tits seen on edge of reedbeds,  8.20am.

Sonning Eye GPs: 21st July

Sonning Eye GPs
2 Common Sandpiper

Mandarin Duck 6

(

3fem+3juv) Well grown juvs - on the new workings

Henley Road GPs
2 Egyptian Goose
Marek Walford

Farmoor 21st July

Common Scoter (m) F1 07:50 (per Dai) The Insomniac Birder

Devil's Punchbowl: 20th July

Devil's Punchbowl
2 Wheatear: 1 juv, 1 unresolved flying black t.
4 Corn Bunting

Mark Merritt

Otmoor: 19th July

Otmoor
7 Green Sandpiper
3 Black-tailed Godwit
Greenshank

Joe Harris

RSPB Otmoor Blog

Farmoor 18th July

Greenshank 1
Turnstone 1
Common Sandpiper 2
Little Ringed  Plover 1

The Insomniac Birder

Churn.

                                   
                                                      Corn Bunting.

Otmoor: RSPB reserve: 18th July

Otmoor: RSPB reserve
2 Greenshank: On pool by cattle pens.
2 Quail: One calling by cattle pens, the other by the first screen.

John Edwards

Bernwood Forest 18th July

Common Crossbill 1
Raven 5

and 2 Purple Emperor at least

More from Burnwood here

Otmoor.A.M. 18th July.

2 Turtle Doves
1 Marsh Harrier (F)
1 Quail (still calling)
1 Greenshank.
3 Redshank (J).

2 Yellow-legged Gull Ashgrave (Badger)

Big Wild Sleepout

Join us on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th August at Wytham Woods to camp out at the Oxford University's famous research woodland! Go badger watching, bat detecting and find out what else may be active in the wood at night. There will be a bbq and a campfire to sit around, tell wildlife stories and toast marshmallows. 4pm saturday to 11am sunday and costs members: Adult £30/child £18 and Non members: Adult £38/child £22.
For more information http://www.rspb.org.uk/events/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-348186
This is an exciting and unique opportunity to visit the woods and see the residents that make it such a special place.



Otmoor 17th July

Quail Water Rail Turtle Dove 2 Redshank 4 G.B.B.Gull 4 (per Mark Merritt) Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Standlake Pit 60 July 16th

Standlake Pit 60 July 17th

Common Tern  21 incl 8 juv
Curlew 2
Lapwing c180
Little Egret 9
Mute Swan 57
Coot 141
Oyster Catcher 4
Teal 3
Great Crested Grebe 10 (including 2 newly hatched yesterday and today, ? one more to come)

Islip: 17th July

Islip
Raven

Michael Hunt

M40 Junction 6: 16th July

M40 Junction 6
Turtle Dove: ON THE SIDE OF JUNCTION 6 EXIT SLIP ROAD.

Alan Stevens

Linky Down: 16th July

Linky Down
Redstart: male. In the top scrub, showing well and calling near the gate.

John Edwards

Farmoor 15th July

Photo courtesey of Andy Last

 

Common Scoter (m) F2 early evening but no sign of the female (per Andy Last)

Also 2 Yellow-legged Gulls

Otmoor. 15th July

 Early morning Reed Warbler

Juvenile Sedge Warbler

Otmoor 15th July

2 Green Sandpiper: On Scrape Grenaways.
Raven
Turtle Dove
11 Little Egret
Hobby
Kingfisher: Along ditch Greenaways.
2 Redshank

(Peter Coombes) Otmoor Blogger

Greenshank flew into hide ponds stayed 10 minutes and then flew east.
2 Turtle Dove: two flying together but saw single birds for the 2 hours I was there.

(Rod Scaife)

Raven courtesey of Peter Coombes

Farmoor 15th July

Common Scoter (f) still present this morning on F2 (per Dai)

The Insomniac Birder

Lockinge: 14th July

Hawfinch Flying between trees along main road through Lockinge, moving north.
Also heard calling. SU424877.

Leo Bateman

Farmoor 14th July

Photo courtesey of Dai The Insomniac Birder

Photo courtesey of Peter Law

Female Common Scoter on F2 per Dai still present this evening + 2 Dunlin

Sent from my iPhone

Ipsden: 13th July

Ipsden
Raven

Sonning Eye GPs
Common Sandpiper: On the new workings.
4 Little Ringed Plover: 1ad+3juv. On the new workings.

Marek Walford

Chimney: Chimney Meadows: 13th July

Chimney: Chimney Meadows
Grasshopper Warbler

Mark Merritt

What do you call two crows on a branch? Attempted murder.

Farmoor 11th July

Adult Black Tern F1.

Otmoor.A.M. 10th July.

 3+2 (J) Turtle Dove
2 Quail
1 Sparrow-Hawk (F)
1 Curlew (calling)
1 Marsh Harrier (F)
1 Green Sandpiper
2 Raven.


Juv Turtle Dove Otmoor
(c) Paul Greenaway.

 More about the juvenile Turtle Doves on Joe's fantastic RSPB Otmoor Blog

Letcombe Bassett: Gramps Hill: 9th July

Letcombe Bassett: Gramps Hill
12 Yellow Wagtail: inc. several juveniles. SU368838.

Mark Merritt

Hanwell: 9th July

Hanwell
2 Spotted Flycatcher: pair. breeding pair at the church. flycatching in churchyard.

Gareth Blockley

Grimsbury Reservoir: 8th July

Grimsbury Reservoir
4 Little Ringed Plover

Mark Ribbons

Otmoor.A.M. 8th July.

1 Turtle Dove
1 Quail ( calling)
1 Marsh Harrier
1 Snipe
1 Green Sandpiper
2 Water Rail.

Lower Windrush Valley GPs: 5th July

Lower Windrush Valley GPs
Oystercatcher
8 Red-crested Pochard

Carl Rylett

Farmoor 6th July

Common Tern Farmoor 6th July (c) M.Chivers

 

More superb photos from Mark at

 

The Early Birder

Farmoor 6th July

5 Common Sandpiper

(per Justin)

Otmoor 6th July am

Green sandpiper 3

Bearded tit 1f along bridleway

Garganey 2

Hobby 2

Turtle dove 1

Kingfisher 1
Curlew 1

Standlake Common, 5th July

Marsh Harrier 1m
Little Egret 4
Oystercatcher 2
Pintail 2
Teal 5
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Common Tern 2

Otmoor.A.M. 5th July.

    Roman Road:

2 Tree-creepers
2 Tawny Owls (calling 12:15 P.M.
they sounded like juveniles).
2 Turtle Dove.

Churn: 5th July

Churn
7 Corn Bunting: Good numbers of these were singing, a couple carrying food.

Steve Goddard

Otmoor 4th July

1 Dunlin 1 Green Sandpiper 4 Redshank No sign of yesterdays Black-wits. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Sonning Eye GPs: 4th July

Sonning Eye GPs
Little Ringed Plover: Off the B478 Playhatch road Lafarge new working pits .

Ralph Watts

Bicester Wetlands Reserve 3rd July

4 Little Ringed Plover
3 Green Sandpiper

(per Alan Peters)

This superb little reserve is owned and managed
by the Banbury Ornithological Society and accessed only by key.

Oxford 3rd July

Please view at 720p or 1080p HD

Photo courtesey of T.S

Otmoor late afternoon 3rd July

Ashgrave
6 Black Tailed Godwits ( 5 in full summer plumage)
5 eclipse Wigeon
12 Teal
1 Garganey
7 Redshank
6 Green Sandpipers

Otmoor.A.M. 3rd. July.

Common Tern & chick

 1 Marsh Harrier (F)
2 Bearded Tits ( from 1st screen)
1 Kingfisher
3 Common Tern + 1 chick.

South Stoke

House Martin

House Martin

Swallow

These builders needed a little rain today.

Mistle Thrush

Mistle Thrush family Kidlington Courtesey of Joanna Harding

June Round Up

Hobby by Andy Last

In what would normally be the start of the summer birding doldrums June delivered what was quite possibly the biggest county bird news of the century... The female Bearded Tit seen on Otmoor at the start of the month was considered by most as unseasonal however on the 10th the thinking rapidly changed with the discovery of two juvenile birds.Young birds moult in to their adult plumage through July with a post breeding dispersal taking place within the following autumn and winter. There have been disputed historical records of breeding pairs along the Thames prior to 1838, however if it could be proven, this would constitute the first breeding record within Oxfordshire.

one of two juvenile Bearded Tits on Otmoor (c) T.S

A Hoopoe was reported near Marston in flight over the A40 on the 2nd with a possible  sighting earlier in the day at Stanton St John. 

Five Black Terns graced Farmoor Reservoir on the 7th in what has so far been a poor year for these enigmatic birds. A singing Tree Pipit near Pishill on the 10th was a surprise discovery of what is now sadly, a difficult bird to catch up with in the county.

Eclipse Garganey Otmoor (c) Pete Barker

A Dipper was reported near the Cascade within the Blenheim Palace gardens towards the end of June

and it's easy to speculate that this is possibly the bird displaced from Crawley Wier/Witney over the winter. The female Marsh Harrier was seen throughout the month on Otmoor with a second bird in the south of the county seen intermittently until the 29th at least.

Quail numbers gradually increased through June with up to 9 birds heard in various locations on the Downs and at least two calling males 'wet lippin' at Otmoor RSPB. Turtle Doves continued to enthral visitors to the moor with numbers peeking at four.

A returning female Redstart found at Farmoor on the 29th reminds us that at least for some within the avian world, autumn is just around the corner.

Back in Time – Chumming for Black Grouse

by Paul Chandler

On the 6^th March 1993 our team took a late winter trip to Scotland on a twitch for a Ross’s Gull near Inverness but unfortunately after the long journey north it turned out not to be there (though fortunately I had seen one in 88 in Devon). We hired a car from a local dealer where my daughter then worked, a Ford Granada automatic, a bit of a novelty back then so we all had a drive of it during our trip. Geoff and Roger Wyatt, Martin Hallam, Justin Taylor and myself all went north and decided to make a week end of it so after dipping the gull we continued up to Grantown on Spey to clean up on some Scottish specialities.

We arrived at Grantown and booked in to a B&B and then went to one of the local hotels to get some food and a few beers, as luck would have it there was a two piece band performing in the hotel that night complete with a drum machine, guitar etc, doing covers of pop songs from the 60’s and 70’s which fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your view) we all knew the words to, so as the beer flowed so did our vocal prowess led by our choirmaster Geoff. We even complimented vocally the drum machine intros and sang along with just about every track they played and at one point the guitarist broke a string but we managed to fill in on the song until the guitar was restrung. Come the end of the night we even got applause from band themselves and some of the audience - needless to say we were well oiled!

This was one of several trips to Scotland we made for various rarities and we must admit that apart from the birds (‘cos they are in our notebooks) the memories of the rest of the trips tend to be rather vague and especially as influenced by alcohol. On one trip we camped in Grantown cemetery for a night as we could not get a B&B, luckily it was not Halloween that night.

Anyway, the following morning we are out early, all with various degrees of a hangover and Roger being particularly worse for wear. One of our target species was Black Grouse as Justin had not seen them before so we started a tour of potential sites. Every now and again we would have to stop for one of the passengers to get out of the car and regurgitate some of the previous nights intake. Now at one point Roger said “stop the car”, he opened the passenger door and immediately regurgitate and at that point two male Black Grouse flew from right to left over the car that proves the point that “chumming” and for Black Grouse inland can work. Some irony here also as in the back seat Martin was sat on one side of the car and saw them, me sat on the other side saw them but Justin sat in the middle missed them and he was the one who needed to see them! However we did see some more on the trip so Justin did get his Black Grouse. 

Overall we had a pretty good week end with Crested Tit, Scottish Crossbill, Golden Eagle, Ptarmigan, Red Grouse, Black Grouse, Snow Bunting, Iceland Gull, Goshawk, Hen Harrier, Capercaillie, thousands of Pink-footed Geese, a Snow Goose, many Common Eider and a several Red Squirrel.

Thanks to Geoff Wyatt for his input on this one.

Kingham 01st July

Great Spotted Woodpeckers currently providing entertainment in our garden