Port Meadow :: 25 January 2020

This was my first ever visit to Port Meadow and was inspired by the recent sightings of Caspian gull. I parked up at Walton Well Road car park and headed towards the flooded fields, not really knowing where I was headed. I bumped into another chap who asked where the wigeon were and I had to admit I hadn't got the foggiest. As I passed the trees on my right there were views of grey wagtail and numbers of chiffchaff - possibly my earliest ever.

As I approached the gate, I spotted a sparrowhawk coming low across the water and sweeping left along the tree-line. This spooked a large number of wigeon and teal out onto the water - they added to an incredible collection of wigeon and a smaller number of teal. On the far bank were a few hundred lapwing which occasionally took to the air to join substantial flocks of BH gull.

Through the gate I had redwing in trees across the meadow and buzzard and red kite above. I set up the scope and scanned the water picking out shelduck (5) and pintail (at least 4). I scanned the gulls but couldn't identify anything unusual.

I turned back, through the gate, and set up watch. A couple of other birders turned up and as we chatted, goosander (3) appeared. Long-tailed tit fed behind and a flock of golden plover passed over.

After an hour I was running out of parking fee and headed back to the car, passing Adam Hartley (Gnome) on the way. As I stepped into the car a small flock of geese flew in from my left - I'd packed away all my kit and from a distance they looked like Canada geese - reports later suggested 150 barnacle geese had been there and perhaps these were the first of an influx. I didn't see any reports of anyone picking up the Caspian.

Sightings (31) included: black-headed gull, blackbird, blue tit, buzzard, Canada goose, carrion crow, chiffchaff, gadwall, golden plover, goosander, great tit, grey wagtail, greylag goose, herring gull, lapwing, lesser black-backed gull, long-tailed tit, magpie, mute swan, pied wagtail, pintail, red kite, redwing, robin, shelduck, shoveler, sparrowhawk, teal, wigeon, woodpigeon and wren.