Duke's Meadow, Banbury :: 26 January 2013

The thaw was in full swing. Last night's snow didn't materialise, just a downpour of rain instead. On opening the curtains this morning I was greeted with sun, so off I went again to see if I could locate the waxwings from last weekend. Even before I left the car, I had them in sight. A quick few photos but then disaster - a couple of dog walkers rounded the corder and flushed the birds off into the distance.

Returning later in the day to see if I could pick them up again (failed), I would have been disappointed if I hadn't found an array of companions on my circular walk. They included: blue tit, great tit, chaffinch, goldfinch, starling, house sparrow, blackbird, woodpigeon, collard dove, fieldfare, rook, carrion crow, magpie, green woodpecker, treecreeper and bullfinch. Lets hope tomorrow's weather allows another search.

Duke's Meadow, Banbury :: 20 January 2013

I've been following @waxwingsUK for the last few months and came across a tweet indicating the location of waxwings in Duke's Meadow, Banbury. I set off through the snow to see if I could break my duck; I havn't been able to locate waxwings despite turning up at locations where there had been recent sightings.  With Landranger grid reference in hand, I arrived in the correct location and set about a search - it didn't take more than 20-30 minutes to find them.  Numbers had increased from the previous day's two, to six.  Yes, at last, and what beauties they were!  Thanks go to Kirsty Brannan.

West Kilbride and Seamill :: 01 January 2013

Back in the north for the New Year festivities.  What weather though; not unlike the rest of the country, the days were dull, rained and were windy.  So it wasn't until New Years Day itself that a walk on the beach was even a possibility. The weather changed, well partially, and the sun came out for a while - the wind didn't stop though and what was a cold day turned into a freezing one with wind chill.  The temperature outside decided that I would be on my own.

The sea was unusually high so the opportunity to see much in the way of birds was somewhat restricted.  The usual black headed gulls, gannets, common gulls, oystercatchers, curlew, pied wagtails, mallard ducks, robins, wrens, goldfinches and jackdaws were joined by grey wagtails and dippers.  A fine pair of dippers in fact and a great watch in the shelter of the Seamill Hydro's perimeter wall.  Hopefully we will see more on our next visit.