Bicester Wetland Reserve :: 04 December 2021

The regular Friday night conflab decided that we would stay closer to home this weekend and I suggested to Kevin Heath that we could visit the Banbury Orthithological Society's (BOS) Bicester Wetlands Reserve – he’d never been. Disturbance to the reserve is kept to a minimum by viewing from hides or screens. Bicester Wetland Reserve is managed by the BOS on behalf of Thames Water and is a member-only (keyholder) reserve due to the nature of the site with heavy moving equipment and hazardous areas.

We arrived shortly after sunrise and flushed a great spotted woodpecker from a feeder, along with an array of great and blue tits. We entered the hide and looked across the scrape and back into the water treatment workings - the first obvious sighting was the number of teal on and beside the water - a count yielded 96 but there were probably others out of sight. We also had gadwall and shoveler on the water and handfuls of moorhens on the fringes. Kev turned and looked back over the pool in the water treatment site as I mentioned a few of the species that I'd seen there; within moments a kingfisher appeared on cue - it was distant but fished from some railings and a signpost. quite successfully.

Kev popped out the hide and when he poked his head back in, he told me that a peregrine had gone through sending up the starlings and pied wagtails on the workings - unfortunately it hadn't stopped and was away so no chance of me connecting. We had regular visits from a pair of great spotted woodpeckers and a little egret dropped into the treatment site pool and then half a dozen house sparrows onto the feedeers. A lovely wren fed in the flattened reeds immediately below the elevated hide.

We prepared to investigate the rest of the site but as we did so we had a flypast from a grey heron and three roe deer poked their head out along the back edge of the hedgerow behind. A jay could be heard calling but we didn't lay eyes on it.

We dropped into 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and then to the hide by the back pool seeing red kite, more wrens, and a buzzard. There was nothing on the back pool and so we didn't stay long. Stepping out of the hide Kev noted a small flock of birds land on the field, and as we made our way back, we stopped several times and could make out they were 14 meadow pipits - when we got closer they took to the wing and one landed in better view for his photo to be taken. A little further on we added a couple of greenfinches.

Back in the main hide we were fortunate to see three snipe and one that flew across and out of view below the ridge around the water's edge. There were a few black-headed gulls around the site and in the workings of the new Technology Park in front. One larger bird caught our attention and after some investigation we could see it was a yellow-legged gull.

A great morning's birding and 34 species recorded (excluding the redwing and peregrine seen only by Kev and the jay we only heard).

Cleeve Hill Common & RSPB Otmoor :: 27/28 November 2021

Travelling for work has been a part of life over the last three decades but the last 18 months have been a great break from it all. It had to come to an end, and so I spent the last week working in Spain, with extra hurdles to the usual ones; Spanish Health Certificate, Covid Vaccination Certificate, a medical to enter the factory, passenger locator form for the return flight and a Day 2 Covid test (clear). I keep testing but am glad I can now get outside and do a bit of birding.

Saturday started cold, windy and snowy. I decided to stay in and read while the rest of the family were still in bed. They passed through one by one, but all made for the warmth of the duvet once more. By lunchtime my phone pinged to say that the snow bunting, seen by my birding mate Kevin Heath the previous day, was still there (Cleeve Hill Common). I packed away my lunch plate, pulled on a fleece and set out.

The snow wasn't bad around Banbury but became increasingly dense as I passed Stow-on-the Wold. The route to Cleeve Hill is well known to me as I used it so many times when commuting back and forwards to the Alcan Rogerstone site just outside Newport, until it closed in 2008. I pulled off, made my way through Whittington and along the lanes - there were continuous explosions of redwing and fieldfare from the berry trees lining the lane. I met a few cars coming the other way and used a number of passing places to negotiate up to the car park. Pulling in and leaving the car it felt like a barren wilderness - snow lay all around, the wind speed was circa 40 mph and it felt Baltic (Artic if not from Scotland!). Bizarrely the car park was full and people appeared to have chosen to come here to walk their dogs and families – absolute madness. I pulled on my walking boots, coat and gloves and set off to the Dew Pool where the snow bunting had been reported. The ground was covered in snow and the wind blowing across me - a rather friendly dog danced around me and seemed to be content in leaving it's walker behind - eventually another call and I was left alone to close the distance.

I arrived to find a chap photographing and as I joined him, he commented how well the bird was showing - I hadn't seen it yet and scanned the fence and area ahead only to find it was already really close and I'd been looking way too far in front. I snapped off a couple of photos just in case it left and then I settled on a spot as the other chap left. I was buffeted by the wind but did get spells when standing up wasn’t my focus. It wasn't long before I had a few shots that I thought might turn out well and I stopped and stood to enjoy the bird as it fed. Another birder joined me, but I soon decided to retire to the car as I'd lost the feeling in my fingers. I sent a WhatsApp message to Kevin with a photo off the back of the camera and commented that although he'd seen it first, I had a photo of a snow bunting in the snow.

I warmed up and set off back home, happy that I'd been successful. The explosions of redwing and fieldfare from the berry bushes repeated plus I spotted a few flocks of red-legged partridge and finches; one of the finches could be identified as a female brambling, even from the car.

That evening I chatted with Kevin and we tried to decide between a trip to RSPB Otmoor to see the two red-breasted geese or Milton Keynes to see the black redstart (f). Kev was really keen on the redstart and so we met at the Esso petrol station at 7.45am and made our way there. We were parked up by 8.30am and started working our way around the sites specified on Birdguides and on the Bucks Birding WhatsApp group. After a couple of hours we'd not had a sniff of the bird (although rather a nice view of a male sparrowhawk) and we returned to the cars for a coffee. Kev noticed that there was water pooling under his car and it seemed to be a leak - he decided to make the sensible choice and make his way home so as not to get stuck a distance from home. The question was what I was going to do for the remainder of the morning. I thought about Pitsford Water, Summer Leyes and Boddington Reservoir but decided on Otmoor - It would take an extra 10 minutes to drive to but would then be closer to home for the return.

I arrived and soon met Dan and Trish Miller who informed me that the red-breasted geese were very far from the Wetland Hide across Ashgrave and that I'd need a scope to have any chance of seeing them. I accompanied them back to the car park and collected my scope - they also lent me £10 and I purchased a "The Birds of Otmoor" book from the author Peter Barker. We said our goodbyes and I set off again.

At the hide I scanned the distant geese but couldn't find the target birds. After a while I decided to walk along the bridleway and see if there was any vantage point I might get a better view from but couldn’t find one. In the ditch between the bridleway and Ashgrave I came across a skulking water rail, but it reached cover before I managed to get the camera prepared. I returned to the hide to give it another go.

After about 20 minutes I locked onto the birds and watched than as the came in and out of view, hundreds of meters away. I took a few record shots and hoped than one would allow the bird to be identified. A great opportunity to see such a rare visitor - possibly an escapee but as the great Lee Evans said in a recent Tweet: "Part of an arrival, all with Barnacle Geese, with this or another at Port Meadow (Oxford) and two together at Otmoor RSPB. Not necessarily escapees, as Red-breasted Geese are known to mingle with Barnacles, but most likely from Holland.". Good enough for me.

Hinton Airfield :: 13 November 2021

The Banbury Ornithological Society monitors bird life in the twelve 10km squares surrounding Banbury which includes parts of Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire. As well as Banbury, the area cover Bicester, Brackley, Byfield, Chipping Norton, Kineton, Hook Norton, Bartons, Tysoes and locations in between. One of the regular birders John Friendship-Taylor had reported merlin from the Hinton Airfield site, likely two different individuals. I met up with Kevin Heath for a wander round.

Despite the weather forecast of heavy cloud cover, it was due to stay dry; although it didn't rain, there were periods when we were sure you could feel moisture in the air. We set off along the perimeter hedgerow, picking out the usual tits and finches, meadow pipit and skylark over, but also lots of fieldfare and redwing. We reached a field beyond a barn and were watching fieldfare, redwing, yellowhammer and chaffinch on the ground when a flock of c75 golden plover were spooked into the air; at the same time a hare was flushed and it exited stage right. The golden plover dropped behind and to the right of the main mixed flock.

We watched the mixed flock as they fed, trying to pick out something unusual but could only add reed bunting. On a couple of occasions, they were flushed by an unseen adversary and made for the trees. On one of these occasions Kev pointed out two birds on a side branch that looked more interesting - we decided that they were likely brambling and on reviewing some photos it was confirmed - there were probably more but we couldn't pick them out easily at this distance.

A flock of 250+ linnet took to the air and relocated on a few occasions, a small number also landing in the distant trees as they passed. In the hedgerow, running away from the back of the barn, a couple of roe deer watched us watching them.

We continued on seeing buzzard and kestrel but no merlin. There were still plenty of fieldfare, redwing, and finches as we went. We turned to head back towards the runway and were unfortunately joined by two dog walkers - that put paid to any hope of spotting birds on the ground - another group of dog walkers came from the opposite direction too. At the runway we looped back towards the barn and picked out mistle thrush and meadow pipits in trees on the next hedgerow but another dog walker passed us in the field we had hoped to scan.

Reaching the barn we had a look but couldn't add to our earlier species count and decided to make for the cars and a coffee, encountering another dog walker as we did so. We sat on a log and watched distant magpie, buzzard, sparrowhawk and kestrel - the kestrel giving a rather attractive if distant display, swooping to and fro. Skylarks displayed in front and behind, a handful at a time. An array of light aircraft took off over our heads, the first containing some mad people looking to jump out, a private small aircraft and then a plane towing a glider.

Finished with no merlin but had a nice morning out.

New Hampden, Bucks :: 06 November 2021

We headed down to Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire with up to five hawfinch being reported there from the middle of the week - there had been a suggestion four had flown off, and only one was seen on Friday - perhaps coincidentally four were recorded down the road at Steps Hill ...

We parked by St Mary Magdalene Church and set out to where a pin had been dropped on a map by an observer the previous day. The wind was fortunately not cold, and the jays and pheasant kept us company. We had limited views of birds in the hedge and trees beyond and tried to leave space - we were a bit confused by the information of the birds being in hornbeam - although there were two trees, they both seemed unlikely spots - we watched and waited regardless. After a while we circled round and came across red kites, kestrel, a large flock of chaffinches, and of course more jays.

After an hour and a half we thought we'd expand our search and went for a look along a footpath through the woods. Almost immediately we had a goldcrest above and could hear nuthatches to our right. Other than a few tits and a wren we found little bird life in the wood.

We reached the opposite side of the wood and looked down the slope seeing two flocks of doves, red kites, buzzards, three black-headed gulls and a few pheasants; in a very distant hedge there was also a roe deer. Being a ‘fun guy’, I like seeing fungi when I am out walking at this time of year - I was pleased to come across some very large bracket fungus on a tree on this side of the wood - I climbed onto a fallen moss-covered trunk and took a photo out into the valley.

We returned through the woods and back to look at the hornbeam once more - no joy. We turned back to the cars to grab a coffee but just short of the gate to the cars we stopped to watch redwing feeding in the yew and had three nuthatches (and three jays) pass through. A couple of horse riders talked to us as the made their way down the path and, as they opened the gate to Hampden House, a couple of birders came through the other way. It took just a few tens of seconds to find out we'd probably been looking in the wrong place - we followed them along the footpath, across a field, and through a copse. On the other side we stopped and viewed another copse which is apparently favoured by the hawfinches (crucially containing a hornbeam) - we spent about half an hour around here before the other birders moved on and left us to our vigil.

Another ten minutes passed and there was sight of any birds arriving or leaving the copse and so we decided to make tracks. Kevin Heath got the edge of the trees when I noticed a bird high in the branches above … very high above. A quick look through my bins and I called him back- it was our bird! We took a few photos and were joined by a young lad that said he had taken up birding recently and had come to see the hawfinch - but didn't have any bins himself. The bird was silhouetted against the sky and so we popped to the other side of the trees and took a few from there for good measure. Another couple of birders (we presume husband and wife) appeared to join the views. A further ten minutes passed, and the bird eventually dropped down into the hornbeam at the end of our copse and out of view.

We said our goodbyes and eventually got back to the cars for our long overdue coffee break - we watched redwing, fieldfare, jays again, and finches as we chatted and walked around the church. It was getting towards lunchtime and so made our way back to Banbury happy with our mornings work.

RSPB Otmoor :: 31 October 2021

This Sunday afternoon turned out to be clear and Kevin Heath suggested we pop down to RSPB Otmoor to watch the murmuration and hopefully see some raptor action. A short-eared owl has been seen intermittently around the site and would be a Brucie Bonus.

After the heavy rain of the last few days we were pleasantly surprised that the paths were relatively clear of puddles and the work done by the volunteers on the paths meant we weren’t marching through mud - a great job. From the bridleway we could see marsh harrier hunting on the far side of Greenaways, but not much else. We pressed on to get to the First Screen.

We were the only people at First Screen and so took up residence looking across the reedbed. There were regular passes from marsh harrier albeit as distance and a couple of kestrels were moving around the area, stopping to hover and very occasionally dive to catch their prey - it didn't appear they'd been successful as the simply reset and tried again.

Two snipe were in view on the island uncovered since the water level dropped but throughout our visit, they moved no more than a foot - one not at all.

Gradually a few starlings passed through, and we wondered if we would be in the right spot for tonight’s event. By around 4.30pm some of the small flocks started to combine and numbers grew. A sparrowhawk and peregrine could be seen working around the edge of the visible reedbed but didn't appear to be directly chasing the flock. Once the flock had reached a size that started to show waves as they turned, we had a couple of close passes and they started to pile into the reeds to our right. Another flock started to form from newly arrived birds and the pattern started again. We went outside to the hard standing next to the screen - a small number of people did the same. Out in front a hen harrier appeared and started cruising across the back of the reedbed and then out to our left. Never in a hurry it cruised around, in front, behind and within the starling murmuration - the peregrine could again be seen but neither the harrier nor the peregrine seemed to be actively attacking the swarm.

Flocks of starling came and went, dropping into the reeds to our right but also into the hedgerows to our left and far out ahead. They must make a picture with a thermal imaging camera - I took a photo through a dip in the reeds of the starling density.

Despite a rather broken murmuration it was a very enjoyable sceptical and we were very pleased that the hen harrier had turned up and given us at least distant views. While there was any remaining light, we made for Greenaways to see if we could connect with the short-eared owl but had no luck. An unexpected afternoon out and a great way to end my holiday week.