It was a beautiful Bank Holiday Monday morning and we were due to be having a BBQ lunch with friends. It seemed to be a shame not to take advantage of such nice weather so I picked up my things and headed off to Balscote Quarry; in the back of my mind I remembered a reported sighting on the Oxon Blog a couple of days before.
As I sat down at the screen I could see that the water has dried up completely and that the feeders are not currently being filled. The site appeared to be virtually bereft of any life, until Roger Evans and a companion walked across the main body ... they appeared to have spotted something but it was not visible from my vantage point. I decided to move on to Grimsbury Reservoir instead as at least I'd have a walk.
Parked the car and the area appeared busy but I suppose this was to be expected on a Bank Holiday when the weather was good. Some people were fishing the river near the entrance and there were numbers of large dragonflies quartering the water along the reeds. I didn't stop and circled to do a clockwise rotation of the reservoir.
It was noticeable that there were more people than usual, in around half a dozen groups and I could see there was a very substantial number of 
canada geese on the far bank (counted c.225). I looked along the hedgerow for the redstart seen the previous day but with no success. I stopped to talk with another birder and he hadn't seen it yet either, despite having seen it the day before and knowing where to look. He did say that he had seen a juvenile hobby in the adjacent field but I didn't see that either.
Continuing round I did find good numbers of long-tailed tits and chiffchaffs. and small flocks of linnet.
Sightings (11) included: black-headed gull, canada goose, carrion crow, chiffchaff, lesser black-backed gull, linnet, long-tailed tit, mallard, pied wagtail, woodpigeon and wren.
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