A red-letter weekend (firecrest & merlin) :: 08 - 10 April 2022

I rose early on Friday to make sure that I took my chance to see the first yellow wagtail visiting Banbury Ornithological Society's Balscote Quarry. It had been reported the day before, but I didn't have a chance to visit before heading home after work. I pulled up in the layby to find Steve Holliday already in residence - conducting a survey. We chatted but neither of us could find the yellow wag in the bowl or in the field behind. A pair of jays flew to the far corner, and I missed the chance for an in-flight photo (a specialism of another BQR regular Wally Warburton) - it wasn't long before they reappeared, one landing on the ground in the feeder area, and the other in the trees beyond. When finished feeding off it flew, passing right in front of the viewing area - I took a photo, well it would have been rude not to.

Steve picked out a call to our left, the first visit from a blackcap this spring. The linnets were in full song and one landed and showed beautifully on blossom - too attractive to ignore. Below we could see four snipe, a pair of lapwing, and only one of the four little grebes reportedly be on-site. A meadow pipit dropped onto the doughnut in front but stayed only a couple of minutes, interestingly performing a display as it left.

Time was marching on so I packed up and prepared to go to work, stopping to see if I could locate the bobwhite quail calling in the hedgerow, and for a last look for the yellow wag.

After work I made a detour back to Balscote Quarry as Mike Prentice had reported that the yellow wag was visible again - presumably it had been roosting elsewhere in the morning, perhaps with the pied wagtails. I didn't stop long but was pleased to see my bird in the field behind, feeding with linnets and yellowhammers. The bobwhite quail did the decent think and waddled out into the open in the feeder area to give me views - silent this time.

On Saturday morning I met up as usual with Kevin Heath - we met at the Esso station on the Oxford Road to find that the pumps were all coned off and no fuel available. I'm sure I'd manage with what I had (gulp - hopefully). We set off, arriving at our destination in Buckinghamshire to try and find firecrests; putting on our boots we could see red-legged partridge on one hillside, and a pair of jays on the other.

We set off slowly strolling, and listening for our bird - the regular calls from song thrush, chiffchaff and others filled the air. It took a short while, but goldcrests started to appear and we hoped we might be getting closer. We kept strolling on and were now approaching a kilometer from where we'd started - further than we'd though we'd be from where the cars were parked- we stopped and searched around and had a flyby raven, buzzard and sparrowhawk. We stopped when we heard an encouraging call, just then a small group passed us and we scanned the trees behind. It took a couple of minutes but then there it was, a firecrest. Kev's ears strike again. It was only a couple of minutes and we struck lucky with a pair flying across the footpath and landing in a shorter tree to our left. They sang then fed vigorously in this and the next tree, and in the brambles below. This was a lifer for Kev and boy did he have a show - the birds gave us a few minutes of their time and I managed to get some photos (rather high ISO but that can be fixed) - I'm not sure I've taken so many photos in a short space of time and perhaps it was because they were flitting so quickly from place to place.

We walked on to let them be and added jays, siskins, treecreepers and more to our day list, but to be honest we were just buzzing from our firecrest encounter. On the return we heard increasing numbers of siskins and had the firecrests as we passed in the opposite direction - we didn't stop so as to limit any further disturbance. Definitely a red-letter day for us.

We made it back to Banbury and dropped into Grimsbury Reservoir but found nothing of note - it would have taken something special to live up to earlier though.

Later in the afternoon I decided to go and fill up with petrol, deciding to continue on to see if I could find the long-staying cattle egret at Enslow. Adrian Sparrowhawk had reported them to be in their usual spot earlier in the day, saying "If anyone wants to go and see em it’s really easy, just 59 yards down the road from the old pub, easy to spot." This wouldn't take long. I got out of the car to find that the sheep had been moved and the cattle egret with them - not what I had planned. I called Kev to check I'd understood but he confirmed I was looking in the right place. Damn! I marched along the canal to see if I could locate if the sheep were just down the other end of the field, but couldn't see anything so marched back to the car. I decided dinnertime was approaching and so jumped into the car and scanned the fields as I crossed the main bridge as I left Enslow - four cattle egret were feeding right in from of the treeline outside the Whitehill Satellite Earth Station. The dishes transmit and receive telephone conversations to communications satellites in orbit about the Earth. The satellites relay the signals to similar ground stations around the globe. It is operated by Mercury Communications as part of their telephone network in Britain. I turned down the track, stopped outside the gate, and rattled off a few photos - I hadn't dipped after all. I made it home before dinner was on the table.

I had a leisurely Sunday morning and by afternoon I found I was free (to do what we wanna do - 'Loaded' Primal Scream). I decided to chill (not have a party) at Balscote Quarry and as I set up in the viewing area Mark Ribbons and his son appeared. We scanned and could find no evidence of the little ringed plover reported earlier but could see the yellow wagtail around the doughnut. Two sand martin were also checking out the tower, landing and peering into the holes. There were occasional snipe visible and good numbers of singing linnet. There were up to six brambling (four males) plus reed bunting and yellowhammers.

Mike Prentice arrived and as we caught up, the linnets feeding in the fields behind gave out an alarm call and rose as one - a raptor shot through with a number of linnet in hot pursuit; from a quick photo I thought it was a male sparrowhawk but I was corrected by Ian Lewington who helped point it out as a male merlin! Not minutes later the first BQR swallow passed over - this was to be repeated about half an hour later with the second - buses eh! A couple of pheasants faced off on the opposite bank to the viewing area and spent a good five minutes squaring up - heads up and down, looking for a weakness. In the end there was no battle, and I could rest my camera arm.

Mark Ribbons left to investigate over at Shenington Airfield - Mike Prentice relayed that he'd been visited there over the last 4/5 days and found nothing and expected that to be case today - Mark Ribbons said he was going in any case and would report back. Not 20 minutes later there was an update on the Banbury WhatsApp group to say he'd located three wheatear - Mike laughed ...

We were considering moving on when a curlew soared in and landed in the water's edge opposite. Strange to visit mid-afternoon - perhaps it had forgotten to change its watch a couple of weeks ago? It marched around a little and about five minutes later took off and set off in another direction. A strange one. An actual sparrowhawk circled the southern end of the site

Mike Prentice left, and I then decided to travel the short distance to Shenington to see if I could connect with Mark's wheatear - how hard could it be, the instructions were clear "In sheep field, along hedgerow near metal water container. There are some big boulders behind the water feeder, and they seem to like these.". I arrived to find Mark's car but no sign of him - there was a sheep field but the grass was too long and contained amongst others, a song thrush and a late redwing.

I spotted sheep in a field about a mile away and had a trot over there finding skylark, linnet and yellowhammers. Worryingly I wasn't sure of the metal water container on a hedge line and so messaged Mark "Now just for a moment pretend I’m an idiot …". There was no reply but in just a few minutes I saw him and his son coming along another footpath - I greeted them and asked Mark if he could explain where I'd gone wrong - he laughed and said he'd try to give a more precise location next time but that he'd show me now. We set off along the edge of a couple of fields and through a gate, then across another field - about a kilometer travelled! However, Mark had taken us to the birds and there were the three (hold on) no four wheatears. The heat haze caused havoc, but I managed a couple of record shots. The paths here join up with some Charlotte and I have walked before and so we will probably return here soon.

Well that had been a fun weekend and some new birds added to the year list. Roll on my week's holiday - staycation.