Farmoor Reservoir :: 20 February 2013

The car was due for it's service and MOT so it was an early morning run down to Oxford; then back to work in a courtesy car before it was even 9 a.m. After a short day at work, it was back to Oxford for 4 p.m. and relative relief that the old girl didn't cost me any more than I had expected.

So now I was in Oxford and it was still light ... straight home? Nah. I'd heard there were 4 long staying scaup on Farmoor F1, so I popped over. On arrival I was greeted by a male stonechat that lead me up the slope to the reservoir edge. Boy was it cold up there. It took 5 minutes to locate the scaup and add another tick on my list. Another 5 minutes look around and then off home - too cold to stay any longer!

Sightings noted (17) included: stonechat, black headed gull, coot, mallard, tufted duck, great crested grebe, scaup, goldeneye, carrion crow, magpie, pied wagtail, kestrel, woodpigeon, cormorant, starling, grey heron, and little grebe.