The morning started late and was accompanied by rain. I decided to take it easy and looked at some of the photos I'd taken the previous day when visiting WWT Slimbridge, then posting them on Twitter. By late morning I noted that there were reports that the yellow-browed warbler at Farmoor Reservoir was showing again and so had an early lunch and agreed with Charlotte we'd go for a walk at Farmoor - the forecast was for thundery showers but as we left it was really rather pleasant.
We arrived in the car park and could see that there were about a dozen people hanging around the start of the countryside walk so we went and joined them. They'd heard the bird quite recently but not had a good look - we waited and heard the bird behind us, scattering the watchers along the path. After a few minutes they started to come back together.
Charlotte was getting restless and said she'd go for a walk up to the water treatment works area and see if she could see the black redstart reported the previous day. Almost as soon as she'd gone, Bryan Manston got a call from Michael Enticott to say that he had been searching for the blackstart but been unable to locate it. Mmm, perhaps I'd need to go and catch up with Charlotte. We heard another call from the bush in front of us and occasionally saw movement. It didn't take too long before the YBW popped out enough to identify it and work along the edge of the bush - I raised the alarm and the group joined in the views, however brief. We watched and waited but could only ever get fleeting views.
I talked with Ewan Urquhart for a short while and before I left, I joined a few others looking at what appeared to be a willow warbler at the top of a tree - a late bird? I decided I'd need to catch up with Charlotte, finding her around the Visitors Centre - she'd not found the blackstart. We chatted for 5 minutes and then made our way along to the water treatment works finding Ewan sitting on the wall and contemplating. We made our way along the path, spotting handfuls of meadow pipits, a grey wagtail and a number of pied wagtails but before we reached the far end Charlotte called another passing bird and this time, I could see it was the black redstart. It disappeared between buildings but was only lost for a few minutes at which point I called Ewan over - we watched the bird work along the far buildings and then out of sight behind.
Rather than continue round F1 I suggested dropping into the cafe for a coffee and hot chocolate - this suggestion was well received. We sat and looked out over F2 from a bench, enjoying the calm. As time moved on, I convinced Charlotte that we should try and see the YBW before we left and when we arrived, both Bryan Manston and Michael Enticott were still there - we joined them and relayed that the black redstart was showing - they hadn't seen my update on the Oxon WhatsApp group. They departed and left us watching a spot where the warbler had shown well, but briefly, earlier. It was less than ten minutes when it reappeared on a tree directly in front of us an stopped long enough for me to get a snap, against the sky and in silhouette - it then moved into a hawthorn behind and flitted between the bushes, giving occasional views but at great distance. What a bird - new for the year for me too. We watched for another 5 - 10 minutes but decided the light was now failing and pulled stumps.
Year List: 224
BirdTrack Record: https://app.bto.org/birdtrack/pubcon/shared?subId=SUB46120415
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