Nether Worton :: 20 June 2020

Having dipped spotted flycatchers at Whistley Wood earlier this morning, I ventured out again. Well Arsenal were on the the TV and he indoors had settled down to watch. I decided to try another site - the one suggested by @old_caley previously. It did sound like it would be a good shout for spotted flycatcher at Nether Worton as Nick (@@old_caley) had said "You should try Nether Worton Church and adjoining cottage. Easy parking and birds are obvious in trees at the edge of the small paddock next to the church and also on the wires and aerial of the cottage."

The Domesday Book records that until 1066 one Leofgeat held the manor of Ortune, probably at what is now Nether Worton. After the Norman Conquest of England an estate of three hides and half a yardland at Worton passed to William the Conqueror's half-brother Odo of Bayeux. By 1086 there were 15 households consisting of 10 smallholders and five villagers. The earliest parts of the Church of England chapel of ease of St James are 12th-century Norman and 13th-century Early English.

The church was easy to find and only 8½ miles from home. I got out the car and waited for around 20 minutes before a spotted flycatcher flew over me from the church and onto the wire behind. In no time it had a butterfly in its beak and took no time in devouring it. Having fed, it seemed to be in no hurry to leave and was happy for me to walk underneath taking photos.

After a minute or two it left, landing in the tree in front of the church/cottage, still in view if looking down the drive. I managed to take a number of photos before it retreated further back into the tree and out of sight. Quite a magical encounter. Success!

The road that runs past the church continues on along a gated road and so I think it may be an idea to look at some Ordinance Survey maps of the area and try having a walk here - the area was very attractive.

Whistley Wood :: 20 June 2020

My wife suggested we do a spot of birding in the morning and I thought that I'd make a concerted effort to see spotted flycatcher. On the Banbury Birders WhatApp Group someone had asked where good spots were in the local area and two that stuck in my mind were Nether Worton (courtesy of @old_caley) and Whistley Wood (courtesy of @987jonty)- probably due to their unusal names. One stipulation was that, wherever we went, we shouldn't be walking in long grass (due to the frequent rain over the last week) and that there was somewhere to have a decent walk. I therefore opted for Whistley Wood as I had never been the Nether Worton and didn't know if we could easily create a circular walk.

We were late setting out and reached the layby on the B4525, by the entrance to the wood, at about 9.30am. Above us flew a single house martin and as soon as we got through the gate a male bullfinch fed in the tree to our left. As far as my wife was concerned, the morning was therefore already a success! There was a lot of birdsong but nothing to give away a spotted flycatcher. I heard a call to our right and thought it was possibly a jay, or had I mistaken a magpie. Suddenly my wife doubted that she'd locked the car and, as we hadn't gone far, she doubled back. As I waited a jay flew passed and landed in a tree ahead - I saw my wife returning and waved her to hurry back - she arrived in time to see it hopped through a few nearby trees and then it gave us good flypast views.

We followed the paths encountering chiffchaff, goldcrest, song thrush and the normal woodland birds. When we reached the far end, some of the paths were blocked as (as the signs said) this part of the wood was "under new ownership". We worked our way around and eventually down a glade with grassy edges and a few meadow plants. There were numbers of flies, bees and butterflies - including large skipper and ringlet.

At the final corner, before we ran parallel to the road and the layby ahead, we stood to watch a party of blue and great tits - some juveniles amongst them. We watched and found that in the scrub below there were two tits foraging. I started to take photos and watching I concluded they were willow tit as they had pure white all round the collar. Later I found out that there was a developing white spot on the upper bill and this is a tell-tale sign that we had actually seen juvenile marsh tit (Richard Broughton @woodlandbirder provided an article he'd written on the subject.

Despite not finding a spotted flycatcher, this was really great place for a spot of birding and a walk so we will be back again I'm sure.

Sightings (22) included: blackbird, blackcap, blue tit, bullfinch, buzzard, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, coal tit, dunnock, goldcrest, great tit, house martin, jay, marsh tit, mistle thrush, nuthatch, red kite, robin, song thrush, woodpigeon and wren.

Farmoor Reservoir :: 13 June 2020

It had seemed to be a long week and decided that we would take advantage of the predicted good weather on Saturday morning for a walk at Farmoor Reservoir. Arriving at just after 8.20am, we found that the gates to the car park were still closed and a sign displayed indicating that they would be opened at 10.00am. I had seen that the site had reopened but not that the gates wouldn't be opened until later than the usual 08.00am. We parked back down the road and walked along the public footpaths running alongside the site.

Walking between two hedgerows we made our way from the north of the site to the west, encountering chiffchaff and large numbers of blackcap - initially all males, but eventually adding females. After crossing the small burn that runs from the river, we entered into open space. This proved to be a wider and more enjoyable way onto the site and offering more open scrub land. We then saw whitethroat, sedge and reed warbler, and reed bunting. Whitethroat were in abundance with family groups chasing around several bushes and others singing from atop small trees.

We saw a couple ahead of us and followed them up from the path onto the west side of F1. The water was quite still with only a gentle breeze. There were few species on the water's edge: coot, mallard and a couple of pied wagtails. We soon came to the western edge of the causeway, and as we looked at the assembled greylag geese, a single small duck took off and landed amongst the geese on the other side of the causeway. We ventured onto the causeway to find it was the male garganey (eclipse plumage). Despite the initial flight, it was then happy to stay for photos - feigned shyness.

We decided to make a circuit of F2 and were surprised at how few gulls there were; mainly just the black-headed gulls nesting on the rafts. Eventually we did see a common tern but not the numbers we are used to seeing here - perhaps we are later due to the lockdown. We added grey wagtail, red kite, buzzard and chaffinch in and over the trees to our right.

As we approached the final stretch to the sailing club, they had obviously opened the gate to the car park (around 9.40am) and in came a stream of cars - they all soon were on the banks and setting up rods, some already casting by the time we reached them. We didn't add anything new over the causeway, perhaps due to the two family parties ahead who had decided to have at least one member walk along the wall on either side.

We reached the car after around 2½ hours on the paths and having covered 4.7 miles.

Sightings (34) included: black-headed gull, blackbird, blackcap, blue tit, buzzard, carrion crow, chaffinch, chiffchaff, collared dove, common tern, coot, cormorant, dunnock, garganey, goldfinch, great crested grebe, great tit, grey wagtail, greylag goose, magpie, mallard, mute swan, pied wagtail, red kite, reed bunting, reed warbler, sedge warbler, snow goose, song thrush, stock dove, whitethroat, willow warbler, woodpigeon and wren.

Grimsbury Reservoir :: 05 June 2020

I decided to stay local today as the weather was not as settled, heading down to Grimsbury Reservoir for a pre-breakfast circuit. In the scrub to the left as I entered there were numbers of greenfinch, a goldcrest, house martins and a chiffchaff. There was quite a lot of action and I thought I could have stayed here for a while, but decided to keep going.

There were a couple of cars in front of the sailing club gates and when I got the reservoir I could see around six fishermen already within the fencing - not bad for 5.30am - maybe they were working later too. Soon I found two juvenile little ringed plover, both with their backs to me ... one did at least turn a little and give me an opportunity to take a record photo. One of the fisherman then decided to site himself towards the north of the site, flushing the two juveniles. As they spun out across the water, they were joined by an adult that must have been further ahead.

I got ahead of the fisherman and when I reached the top end, one of the juvenile LRPs dropped onto the waters edge; when I stepped into the longer grass I could get a better photo. As I stood, a wren called in the trees to my left - he gave me some good views, and seemed content to stay close.

I reached the scrub and brambles at the north end of the site finding numbers of whitethroat, both common and lesser. It proved impossible to get a photo of the lesser as they stayed in the undergrowth and I wasn't going to camp out until I got what might only be a record shot; however, a number of common whitethroat showed reasonably well. Some had the look of juveniles but appeared quite well advanced if they were.

I turned left to go into the edge of the wood and stopped to watch a couple of sedge warbler. As I stood, a grey squirrel walked up to me getting within about three or four feet. It obviously wanted to get passed me on the path. He stopped, unsure how to proceed - perhaps worried about social distancing rules. After a few tens of seconds it resolved its dilemma and just made a dash for it, almost jumping over my feet.

I continued down and under the bridge. On the other side I looked for any action across the water, and when I couldn't locate the singing sedge warbler I bore left. Ahead there was another singing sedge warbler, but it was flighty. As I stood in wait, a female whitethroat collected food for its young - the sun also came out.

I returned through the bridge and down toward the canal. As I passed an area with log pile I had two juvenile wrens with still fluffy heads. On the canal side I found chiffchaff and a grey heron.

Back up on the reservoir I headed back adding willow warbler and c.80 swifts feeding over the river. A peregrine passed overhead and didn't give any of us a second look. A handful of house Martin had also joined the swifts.

Sightings (28) included: blackbird, blue tit, canada goose, carrion crow, chiffchaff, dunnock, goldcrest, goldfinch, great tit, greenfinch, grey heron, grey wagtail, house sparrow, lesser whitethroat, little ringed plover, long-tailed tit, magpie, mallard, mute swan, peregrine, robin, sedge warbler, stock dove, swift, whitethroat, willow warbler, woodpigeon and wren.