June / July Review and a late news item

Rose-coloured or "Rosy" Starling, courtesy of Steve Burch

This usually less eventful summer interval in the birding calendar produced an array of megas and scarcities nationally, but it wasn't till the last week of July that a piece of that action arrived here in Oxfordshire. In what has been an irruption year for Rose-coloured Starling one was finally reported in our county on 27th at East Challow near Wantage. It was third time lucky for the county recorder who had checked out two prior false alarms, and a major local twitch duly ensued. The good humoured and welcoming residents then told how the "pink bird" had been around here for a few days, and numbers of Oxon birders managed to connect with it in various spots around the village before month's end.

Rosy Starling, courtesy of Ian Lewington ↑ and Gnome ↓

Up until this event the Oxon birding scenario had remained fairly typical for the time of year. In the early weeks of June the tail end of the northward passage season provided some add-on records from May, and by the latter stages of the review period return wader and passerine migration progressed through the county.

Waders, wildfowl and raptors all featured during June. In an exceptional local season for Sanderling, smart looking summer plumaged birds continued to pass through Farmoor Reservoir until 7th. Northbound Ringed Plover were noted there to 10th and an even later Knot dropped in on 17th. Another centre for waders was Appleford GPs where a number of regular species were observed throughout the month.

Farmoor waders
Sanderling, courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

Ringed Plover, courtesy of Dave Murphy
Click on any image to enlarge

Two of this group with a strong presence were Little Ringed Plover and Green Sandpiper. The former appeared to have a good local breeding season, with fledgelings filmed at Appleford GPs. Other sites where breeding may have occurred were Bicester Wetland Reserve, Otmoor and Chinnor Cement Works; while more LRP records came from Blenheim Park and Grimsbury Reservoir.

video courtesy of Badger

A Ringed Plover was a patch tick at Moreton golf course on 10th, while Green Sandpiper were prominent at several wetland sites including Balscote Quarry through June and into July. Two Greenshank were also logged at Balscote Quarry on 8th.

Osprey over Farmoor Reservoir, courtesy of Roger Wyatt

Back at Farmoor an unusually late Osprey flew over on 6th. An eclipse drake Garganey attracted its share of admirers there between 4th and 16th, and another featured at Appleford from 30th and into July. With a female also being sighted again on Otmoor in mid-July, could it be that some individuals have been present around our county for several months now? The male re-appeared at Farmoor Reservoir on 23rd July.

Eclipse drake Garganey, courtesy of Nick Truby ↑ and Peter Law ↓

Amongst other ducks a pair of Pintail bred successfully for the first time ever in Oxfordshire out on Big Otmoor in mid-June. A further unusual wildfowl breeding record was the first Gadwall brood seen for many years at Farmoor, earlier in that month.

Otmoor Pintail brood, courtesy of Heather Green

Farmoor Gadwall brood, courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

Moving into July, Green Sandpiper records built as is usual for the month. A good earlier count of 8 at their best county site of Bicester Wetland Reserve (4th) was eventually topped by 15 on 25th. Another centre for them was Appleford GPs where the highest tally was 7 on 26th, a sighting matched at the Ardley re-cycling site on 19th. Greenshank were also logged several times in the first two of those places, and also at Standlake GPs on 6th.

Green Sandpiper at Bicester Wetland Reserve, courtesy of Nick Truby

Black-tailed Godwits, courtesy of Tricia Miller

Some other wader records that stood out around the county in the early part of the month were

• 9 summer plumaged Black-tailed Godwit on Otmoor (2nd)
• 10 Common Sandpiper at Farmoor (3rd) and a best ever site count of 7 at Moreton golf course (6th)
• 8 Curlew on Otmoor (6th)
• 3 Little Ringed Plover at Rushey Common (7th) and 4 at Chinnor Cement Works (14th)
• 6 Oystercatcher with a chick at Moreton golf course (8th)
• 12 Dunlin over Appleford GPs (9th)

Curlew on Otmoor, courtesy of John Workman

Quail, courtesy of Simon Bradfield

Moving on to some seasonal specialities, calling Quail drew a succession of Oxon's finest to a number of locations on the Downs from 20th June and right through July. The main centre was Crog Hill to the south of Wantage, from where the earliest record came on 2nd June and one individual was actually photographed. Cuckoo continued to be seen and heard widely until 3rd July and Spotted Flycatcher were logged regularly at 10 different sites.

Spotted Flycatcher, courtesy of Mark Merritt

Amongst passerines on southward passage, Redstart first appeared at Otmoor on 5th July and Lollingdon Hill on 8th, and were seen at both those regular Oxon hotspots through the rest of this period. Other records came from Dix Pit and Stonesfield Common on 26th, and two sites on the Downs. Whinchat also passed through some of those places, as well as Standlake (20th). And a moulting adult Wheatear was photographed at Farmoor on 13th.

Otmoor Redstart ↑ and Whinchat (juv) ↓ courtesy of Peter Barker

Farmoor Wheatear, courtesy of Dave Murphy

A good level of Common Crossbill movement was also noted with 9 over Goring on 25th June, 6 over Leafield a day later; and more records in July from Headington (9th), the Ruscote area of Banbury (11th), Lower Radley (14th) and Buscot Park (16th). And high summer Siskin were spotted over Headington again this year on 8th and 11th July.

Mediterranean Gull, courtesy of Roger Wyatt

That all seems like a lot of names, places and dates already but a few more sightings of note in this review period were

• Mediterranean Gull near Goring (7th June), and Appleford GPs (9th July)
• A Little Tern at Farmoor (8th June), and 2 Black Tern at Appleford (18th)
• A Marsh Harrier soaring near Ardington on 22nd July
• A juvenile Mediterranean Gull at Grimsbury Reservoir on 30th
• A presumed escaped White Pelican near Burford on 31st

Farmoor waders, courtesy of Ewan Urquhart
Little Ringed Plover (juv)

Turnstone

Post-breeding Sanderling

Return wader passage re-accelerated at Farmoor Reservoir, Appleford GPs and other Oxon sites in the last two weeks of this review period; with Turnstone, Sanderling and most of the species mentioned at the start of this round-up all featuring again. So overall there has been a lively and varied "quiet season" for 2020, if unremarkable in terms of scarcities, but with that late headline twist in the tail. Now what is usually an exciting time of year awaits through the upcoming two months.


Peter Law

Another photo of our star bird taken by John Edwards

Otmoor - The ones that got away July 2020
by Peter Barker

We have all spent time speculating what we might have missed whilst we were in lock-down and the Reserve was strictly off limits. We can now reveal that we certainly missed two excellent birds on Otmoor, one of which was a first ever record for Oxfordshire and the other a very much less than annual visitor.

David Wilding, the reserve manager and the only member of Otmoor RSPB staff not furloughed, was out in the early morning of 25th May checking pumps and water levels on the bund that separates the two halves of the reed bed. He heard a reeling coming from out in the northern section and knew at once that, although somewhat similar to a Grasshopper Warbler, this was very different. He also knew that it could only be a Savi’s Warbler. He realised that this was a very important discovery and that he needed to confirm it. He shot a piece of video on his mobile phone which although not showing the bird, clearly recorded the hard, dry reeling song.

He sent the video straight away to Jon Uren who keeps the OOS. records and is an Otmoor volunteer. Jon in turn sent the clip on to county recorder Ian Lewington for final confirmation, and it was as they had believed a Savi’s Warbler. Unfortunately there was no way that this information could be released, not only was the bird singing from inside the closed reserve, but it was singing from a part of the reserve that is not accessible to the public even when the site is fully open. David kindly offered both Ian and Jon the opportunity to come out and hear it but they both very honourably declined, saying that it would not be fair to all the other county birders, who would not be able to visit due to lock-down and with the site being formally closed.

Reeling Savi's Warbler - note the higher pitch than Grasshopper Warbler. Video courtesy of D. Wilding.

The RSPB runs a number of trail cameras around the reserve to monitor fox, badger and deer movements. One of the cameras, out near the south eastern edge of the reed bed, picked up the unmistakable and distinctive “whip “ call of a Spotted Crake, almost every time that it was triggered by  passing animals. These recordings ran from the 1st through to the 7th April, when staff were furloughed, and monitoring stopped. The bird was certainly holding territory and may well have attracted a mate. Sadly, we will never know!

Spotted Crake on the Trail Cam. Video courtesy of the rspb.

So there we have the two that got away, at least the two we know about …... and we can only wonder about what else could have slipped under the radar.