Little Marlow GP :: 09 September 2022

Not a long visit to see the red-necked phalarope but just a bird that I wanted to see as a life tick - frustratingly work has been very busy meaning that I hadn't been able to get down to Cleeve Hill to see the two dotterel over recent days - as would be expected they were gone before a weekend opportunity to travel. This was a perfect antidote.

I was able to wrap up in the office by 4.45pm and checked with home that I could be later for dinner - pass stamped. It took just 50 minutes to reach the small car park to the south of Little Marlow. There had been quite a bit of rain over the last week and so I popped on some walking boots and within 5 minutes was standing beside a birder looking through his scope across the Gravel Pits. In an instant the phalarope could be seen on the far side of the tern rafts busily working right then back left – 90m out - it didn't seem to be feeding as much as I had expected, and was much further from the shore than the grey phalaropes I've encountered.

For the entire visit the bird simply repeated this behaviour (to and fro) - the light decreased and photos always distant. A kingfisher flew past, returned but always stopped out of view. A black swan cruised on the water over on the very opposite shore. A family of great-crested grebes fed close in front.

Before long I had to leave and make the journey back up the M40 to join the family for a late dinner. Short but sweet.

Grimsbury Reservoir and Wormleighton :: 01/02 September 2022

As lunchtime arrived I noted an update on the Banbury Birds WhatsApp Group from Gareth Blockley (@grimsbury-birds) of great white egret at Grimsbury Reservoir. I quickly jumped in the car and noted on arrival that three had now been recorded. I worked my way round and found "just" the one in the northwestern corner but with two little egrets - possibly the three noted earlier? A grey heron flew past and I couldn't resist a photo. I only had my 30 minutes lunch and so I took some record shots of the GWE and made my way back to work.

The following morning I had to drop my daughter at the train station just before 6.30am and was then eating breakfast when Gareth posted another update, this time for a ferruginous duck on the reservoir - a first for the Res and possibly also a first for the Banbury Ornithological Society monitoring area. I quickly got ready for work and headed down to see the bird before going to the office. On the bank I met John Friendship Taylor (@987jonty) and Adrian Tysoe before they both had to leave. The bird was associating with some mallards, and they swam out and onto the northern bank so I followed them round. I could see Gareth with Steve Holliday by the bench on the northwestern corner and dropped round to talk to them before heading on. Gareth said the bird had made two attempts to leave, the first circling the water and heading north before returning just minutes later and a second time where it circled but dropped straight back on the water. Could this be one of the Draycote birds or perhaps more likely the one from Daventry Country Park.

That was two special birds in two days ... what next?!

I then had an opportunity to drop into Wormleighton for just a few minutes and stood watching the numbers of spotted flycatchers around the entrance to the water treatment site. There were quite a few amongst the great and blue tits, and chiffchaff - unfortunately I couldn't find a pied flycatcher amongst them, or the redstart that has been mentioned by others. Perhaps if I had more time.

RSPB Frampton Marsh :: 28 August 2022

My regular Saturday birding schedule had been cancelled due to Kevin Heath having something else to do - how very could he! I'd also had to work late on Friday in any case and really needed a lie in after a long working week. So, it was Saturday night when I decided that on Sunday morning I'd go and see if I could see the European Roller that had been showing in Timberland, Lincolnshire. This bird had showed well the previous day and been reported up until dark on the Saturday evening - there was a chance I'd be able to find it if I went early.

The journey was uneventful, and I was on site by just after 7.30am finding two birders already in residence. I joined them but as I approached, they turned and shared that the bird had not showed at all - damn. I joined them and began a 2½hr vigil which unfortunately didn't yield any sightings - the bird had already moved on - it transpired that a hobby had attacked the bird the night before but that it had returned to its normal perch and appeared likely to stay - it hadn't. While seeing hobby and golden plover in flight was very pleasant, as was a single whinchat in the fiedls ahead, I'd dipped. Fortunately, I had planned to stay out longer and made for RSPB Frampton Marsh.

The extension to Visitor's Centre is still being constructed and so porta-loos are provided on arrival. I immediately made for the 360° Hide as there had been reports of curlew sandpiper there in recent times and found quite a few people already in place. As I entered the hide there was a buzz as a pectoral sandpiper was showing at distance - two younger chaps and a dad were the main observers and they shared the location. I'd considered dropping into Eyebrook Reservoir on the way home for one, but this was a real bonus. I found some space on the benches and set up my scope - with the help of some already on the bird I located it feeding with dunlin and ruff, working right across the vista.

Out in the scrape there were so many ruff but also numbers of curlew sandpipers - 26 counted over the reserve. There were dunlin and a single knot in amongst a flock of black-tailed godwits. Two spoonbills slept in the distance, occasionally preening and going back to sleep. I spent quite a time here and the personnel changed a few times - one group picked out a little stint far out to the left. I'm glad I was carrying my scope as I was able to join the viewing of this bird - it would have been impossible just through bins.

In front of the spoonbills I picked out a couple of spotted redshanks and over time counted up to six - they are great to see but having experienced them in their fine black livery they are not quite as appealing. The pectoral sandpiper had gone AWOL behind the vegitation on an island - it had probably flown from there but no one had managed to follow it. Avocet fed across the mud as did black-tailed godwits, some getting closer than those by the spoonbills. Two pink-footed geese waddled to an island to my left, one with a damaged wing and a single barnacle goose wandered about in the same area, appearing to have no apparent purpose.

Eventually I thought it was time to make a circuit of the reserve and as I did, I bumped into the couple of lads and the dad from earlier, reporting to them that a little stint was showing - they also passed on the sighting of a lone whimbrel which I later saw but only briefly. There were also small flocks of yellow wagtails but again at distance. It wasn't long before I was at the turn and deciding whether to make for the car or return to the 360° Hide - the hide won and as I arrived I could see Ricky Sinfield who I've met several times at Summer Leys and Pitsford Reservoir. He'd been following the curlew sandpipers and I joined in, however still hoping to get better images of the pectoral sandpiper.

After ten minutes or so the birds were put up a couple of times, the first we could see why but the second had a hobby tear passed the hide chasing what appeared to be a hirundine - swallow, house and sand martins were all visible across the reserve. The hobby passed so close we thought it might pass through! This mixed up all the birds and we started to scan again - at this point the chaps and dad returned and they again were first to spot the pectoral sandpiper, off to our right and distant but in better conditions than before. Having just seen a hobby, a lone and rather vulnerable looking moorhen chick swam across very much in the style of "there once was an ugly duckling". Hopefully it makes it. A rather bright yellow wagtail appeared on the bank opposite.

Three RSPB Volunteers dropped in, and then a fourth. We continued watching the pectoral sandpiper but one of them spotted that the little stint had appeared out and ahead. It didn't show for long, and our attention returned to the pectoral sandpiper. It appeared to be working its way along the water's edge and closer, maybe we'd get relatively good views? ... everyone else seemed to be content with the views they’d had, but Ricky and I waited for the bird to work closer and indeed it did. A couple on other chaps appeared and I presume knew Ricky well. Time was getting on and so I made my way back to the car stopping only to take some photos of some swallow fledglings being fed on the edge of their nest - a very entertaining end to a good day at Frampton.

Weston Turville Reservoir :: 23 August 2022

It had been, and was shaping up to continue to be, a busy week at work and so when reports of a purple heron at Weston Turville Reservoir dropped, I was a bit frustrated - by the time I packed up in the office and got there it would be dark. Kevin Heath and Nick Truby had both already set off and for an hour or two were also frustrated as the bird has been lost. Nick gave up but Kev toughed it out and was eventually rewarded as the bird took to the trees to roost - a life tick for him. The next morning Nick returned and had some great views and photos but nothing to match those of the Summers Leys bird last year.

Later at work it got to about 5.45pm and packed up at work having agreed to pick up my daughter from the train station at 6.00pm. We arrived home finding dinner was almost prepared and on the table soon after. I wolfed it down and asked for a pass to go to Weston Turville - approved.

I arrived at 7.30pm and hurried onto the dam finding Hasan Al-Farhan and Gyorgy Szimuly (Szimi) already on the bird. I set up my scope to have a look - the bird was on the edge of the reeds about 400m away - a nice year tick. A shout went up and we saw a very distant bittern fly back from the far reed bed and into the distance, eventually dropping down.

I bid my farewells to the other two and made my way around the reservoir behind the fishing pegs - I would be able to get closer views from here although photos would be increasingly challenged by the failing light. I reached the end peg and found that a young couple had decided that this was a good spot for courting and so I retreated one peg and joined a couple of fishermen - they were just returning a carp back into the water - 40lbs8oz! I set up the scope and scanned for the heron - it had moved - once I stopped weeping and cleared the tears from my eyes I swept the reeds and trees. Ahead of the platform was dense weed and he'd eventually had to wade out and land the fish on the far edge of the weed - fortunately he was dressed for the occasion. May this have been the event that had flushed the bird – he was a pleasant guy and just getting on with his hobby.

It took at least 5 minutes but eventually I located the purple heron in a distant tree on the opposite bank (225m away). I watched but the bird was in full “crouching tiger” mode, and I could only achieve record shots. By just after 8.00pm it was getting dim and I resolved that I wouldn't be getting anything better and returned to the dam.

I stopped at the dam, joining a group still watching the bird perch in the tree but it was back at greater distance and fading light and so I didn't stop long. By the time I reached Aylesbury it was already dark and the return to Banbury was uneventful.