Wednesday 23rd March - Avocets

It's been a productive day today on the Patch. Firstly Steve Goddard had a female BRAMBLING visit his garden in Wolvercote briefly and then this evening I found a couple of AVOCET roosting on the floods. This species is quite often an early spring bird here on the Meadow though it's by no means guaranteed that we get one each year. Apart from these birds, there are 6 REDSHANK, 2 RUFF and 5 OYSTERCATCHERS still about. 

Duck numbers are starting to reduce appreciably already and the Meadow is looking noticeably less birdy than just a few weeks ago. Sadly, there's been hardly any gull roost to speak of lately.

Sunday 21st March

So we've reached the Vernal Equinox and with the coming of Spring we've had the first migrants appear when Steve Goddard saw a couple of SAND MARTINS up in Wolvercote this morning. It's always a very special moment for me when the first migrants return.

What started out at the beginning of the week as a rather quiet period on the Meadow has by the week's end turned into quite an amazing wader fest. Numbers have been building throughout the week but has really only been the last couple of days when it's all really kicked off. Sunday's tally (courtesy largely of Ian Elkin) was 3 RUFF, 7 BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, 24 DUNLIN, 4 RINGED PLOVER, 1 CURLEW, 6 REDSHANK and 4 OYSTERCATCHERS. These are really good wader counts for this time of year - to have 49 waders on the floods and it still being March is very good. I'm particularly pleased about the Curlew which I've been hoping for for several weeks now as this isn't a straight-forward bird to get on the year list.

Oystercatcher

By contrast duck numbers are slowly starting to dwindle though we're attracting several SHELDUCK to the floods (as we usually do at this time of year), there are still a few GOOSANDER coming in to roost and a few PINTAIL are still around. Talking of Goosander, there were a pair on the Castle Mill Stream this week which gave lovely close views.

So, now that the first migrants are in, what can we expect over the next couple of weeks? Little Ringed Plover is the obvious one and it's prime Med. Gull passage so it would be great to get one of those on the list. Talking of the year list, at the start of the year I made a list of all the winter species that I'd expect to have seen by about this time of year and now that we've got Curlew the only two things that are left are Nuthatch (which is probably still lurking in the Medley Farm copse) and bizarrely Kestrel, which I've not managed to see yet so if anyone sees one on the Patch then do let me know (it's only a matter of time before they return to Burgess Field I expect).

Monday 14th March

Here are the Webs Count figures for Port Meadow for this Sunday just gone, courtesy of Anthony Cheke.

Mute Swan  5
Greylag Goose  190
Wigeon  550
Pintail 2 (males)
Shoveler 6+ (5m,1f)
Mallard 33
Teal 120+
Goosander  2 (pair)
Moorhen 6
Golden Plover 90
Oystercatcher 2
Redshank  7
Black-headed Gull  425
Herring Gull (agg.) 1
Lesser B-b Gull  2
Raven 1
Grey Wagtail 1
Meadow Pipit 1
Pied Wagtail 3+
Skylark 1
Longtailed Tit 4 (Burgess Field)
Green Woodpecker 1 (Burgess Field)
Greenfinch 1 (Burgess Field)
Fieldfare 1 (Burgess Field)

Friday 11th March - Lesser Spotted Woodpecker

The Meadow has gone back to Lake Mode now - the midweek rains have caused the rive to burst its banks and we've got "lake" more or less up to the north end of Burgess Field. Sadly this meant that we lost many of our waders which have moved on elsewhere though I did still manage to find 2 REDSHANK and 1 OYSTERCATCHER when I visited on Thursday late afternoon. Still I can't really complain as now that it's nearly spring every top up to the floods is vital as we battle with the forces of evaporation which are trying to deprive us of our habitat for the crucial spring passage period.

The highlight of the week was this morning when I paid a visit to the Trap Grounds. I like wandering around here though to be honest there's not usually much to see from a birding point of view. On the way back out again by the boardwalk I spotted a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, calling loudly and harassing another smaller bird which turned out to be nothing less than a LESSER SPOTTED WOODPECKER - a real county Mega these days. I watched it for about five minutes before it disappeared - it seems that the Greater Spot's continued harrying proved too much for it in the end.

Tuesday 7th March

A couple of new year ticks to report today. Firstly as part of the on-going wader-fest we had a couple of  BLACK-TAILED GODWITS (still in winter plumage) drop in today. The wader counts seem to vary quite a bit from day to day and today's accompanying tallies were: 2 RUFF, 3 OYSTERCATCHERS, 4 DUNLIN and 5 REDSHANK.

The second year tick was a Grey Wagtail up at Wolvercote Lakes, found by Mary MacDougall, who also reported a singing Skylark up by Wolvercote Common again. 

A late morning trip to the Trap Grounds today found the CETTI'S WARBLER still singing away in the reeds. Talking of Warblers, there was also a Chiffchaff flitting about near the small side pond and a Blackcap that was briefly in full song. Spring is clearly just around the corner!

Trap Grounds Bullfinch courtesy of Nicola Devine

Sunday 6th February

It's been another good week on the Meadow with waders very much taking centre stage.We've had four RUFF with us for most of the week along with 3 OYSTERCATCHER (though this count went up to 5 at the weekend). There were one or two RINGED PLOVER still with us for the first half of the week, up to 6 DUNLIN and a peak count of 7 REDSHANK. To add to this wader-fest as well as the good numbers of Lapwing we're at least getting decent counts of Golden Plover with up to 800 birds reported - time to start looking through them for rarer cousins! All good stuff!

Oystercatcher

The gulls by contrast have been somewhat disappointing. Whilst there have been reasonable numbers we've not had anything of particular note. Now that we're into March it's time to start looking out for Mediterranean Gulls so that's something to look forward to. 

As far as ducks are concerned alongside the resident winter duck we've been getting a handful of PINTAIL still around, up to 6 SHELDUCK and modest numbers of GOOSANDER are still coming in to roost. 

Elsewhere there has been another Sparrowhawk sighting to report from Nicola Devine and several Reed Buntings are about in and around the Trap Grounds area. I also had a couple of Skylark sightings (a year tick) reported to me from up by the Wolvercote Common area.

Female Feed Bunting

Monday 29th February: Caspian Gull

Another good visit to Port Meadow this evening. Still plenty of waders about with now 4 RUFF, the 3 OYSTERCATCHERS, the2 RINGED PLOVER and at least 3 REDSHANK, as well as about 150 Golden Plover all present. On the duck front there were 7 PINTAIL and 2 SHELDUCK in amongst the usual Wigeon and Teal.

The highlight of the visit though were a couple of very educational gulls. The first was a tricky trap for the unwary. To my credit I wasn't convinced that it was a Caspian Gull and this turned out to be correct as it's actually a dark-eyed 3w Herring Gull (video here).

Herring Gull (probably argenteus) impersonating a Caspian

The second was a distinctive, long-winged 2w gull which I thought was probably a rather strange looking Yellow-legged Gull though it actually turned out to be a comparatively scruffy and dark-mantled CASPIAN GULL after all (video here).

...and a Caspian Gull impersonating a Yellow-legged Gull

Thanks to Ian Lewington for the ID confirmations/corrections.

Also to report, Steve Goddard heard a TAWNY OWL calling outside his home in Wolvercote this evening - another year tick.

Sunday 28th February

It's been a good week on the Meadow. The floods are incredibly birdy at present - there must be several thousand birds about at the moment which is really great. As far as species go, after a long period of rather sameyness there's been a subtle but definite change over the last week with at last some real movement occurring. This has been most noticeable as far as waders have been concerned when suddenly a few started to appear. We've had a single DUNLIN, a RUFF, up to seven REDSHANK, 3 OYSTERCATCHERS and two early RINGED PLOVER all make an appearance this week. Add to this several hundred Lapwing and up to 70 or so Golden Plover and it's been pretty good.

Ruff

On the duck front it's mostly been the usual suspect. At the start of the week we had about 15 PINTAIL though this has quickly dropped to about 5 birds. There were a couple of SHELDUCK on Sunday and we've been getting a few GOOSANDER in the evening roost. I did notice a single Gadwall in amongst the usual duck species this week and there are a few Shoveler about as well. 

I've not been doing the gull roost as rigorously this week. There have been large numbers of Black-headed Gulls picking over the recently flooded grass. There were reasonable numbers of large gulls already about mid afternoon on Sunday though nothing out of the ordinary. Indeed it's been rather quiet on the Caspian and white-winger front throughout the whole county recently.

A couple of other snippets: on a quick early morning walk on Monday morning along the canal I saw my first Patch Sparrowhawk of the year and also heard a Blackcap singing for the first time this year. With the Daffodils now out and birds starting to claim their territories you can really sense that spring is just around the corner now.

Sunday 21st February

My apologies for the radio silence over the last couple of weeks. I was away last week and meant to do a post before I left but things rather caught up with me and I ran out of time. There's not been much of particular note to report since my last update and there are no new year ticks to record.

I do have the latest Webs Count results from Anthony Cheke from today to offer you
Greylag Goose  245
Canada Goose  11
Barnacle Goose (f)
Shelduck  2
Wigeon  1600
Gadwall  4
Pintail 2
Shoveler 3+ (only males seen)
Mallard 121
Teal 130+
Gt Crested Grebe  4
Cormorant  3
Moorhen 1
Lapwing 330
Black-headed Gull  2200
Herring Gull (agg.) 10
Lesser B-b Gull  210
Great B-b Gull  14

Anthony also checks out the Wolvercote Lakes (I presume that this is the Gullet area)

Mute Swan 2
Shoveler 1
Mallard 10
Tufted Duck 8
Moorhen 1
Coot 5
Black-headed Gull 24

Now that I'm back, normal service should be resumed.

Sunday 7th February

I had a productive visit to the Trap Grounds on Friday morning. Firstly the CETTI'S WARBLER was singing away periodically from deep within the main reed bed - let's hope that it stays and perhaps even breeds. Also heard from within the same reed bed was the WATER RAIL which has been with us for some time now. To round things off I found a male BLACKCAP near the boardwalk - the first for the year on the Patch. Usually I'd have had this species in my garden by now but as it's been such a mild winter they've not needed to come in to look for food. Also seen or at least heard were Goldcrests and Treecreepers.

There are a few Winter Heliotrope flowers showing in the Trap Grounds near the pond screen
though many of the leaves look somewhat frost-damaged.

Given the windy conditions there have been no reports over the weekend and with Storm Imogen raging as I write I'll probably not go out today though with any luck I'll be able to get out later on in the week. I'm itching to get back to grilling the gulls!

Wednesday 3rd February

Good birding is still to be hard on the Meadow floods though there hasn't been much variety of late. The Dunlin seemed to have moved on as I haven't seen them for the last couple of days now but there are varying numbers of SHELDUCK (up to 8 or so), PINTAIL (up to 6) and GOOSANDER (up to 8) each evening to keep one occupied. The gull roost has been reasonable though the prevailing south westerly wind and the size of the floods means that viewing conditions are rather difficult at present and I haven't found anything noteworthy of late. The highlight over the last few days on the floods was the appearance of the first OYSTERCATCHER of the year - it's good to have this lovely wader back again.

Elsewhere, we're now able to add LESSER REDPOLL to our year list thanks to a report and great photo taken in the Trap Grounds on the 15th January - thanks to Nicola Devine for that. I can also add SNIPE and LITTLE GREBE to the list thanks to some sightings recorded on the excellent Trap Grounds sightings web-site.

Trap Grounds Lesser Redpoll (c) Nicola Devine

Sunday 31st January

It's been a reasonable few days on the Meadow on the birding front. The floods are still a good size and there are so many birds about when I come for the evening gull roost that it's hard to do them all justice in the time that I have. SHELDUCK numbers have been gradually increasing with up to 8 having been around over the last few days. PINTAIL numbers too are on the increase with several birds now about. In contrast, there have been fewer GOOSANDER roosting over the last few days with just five birds there today. Our DUNLIN have still been hanging out with the Lapwings with six birds now with us. On the other hand Golden Plover are only noticeable by their absence - I've not seen any over the last few days.

Three of the Dunlin

I've not managed to turn up anything really interesting on the gull front though I did see really interesting bird this week that at the time I couldn't ID and dismissed as some kind of hybrid without photographing it. Having subsequently seen some photos on the internet I'm now starting to wonder if I've just passed over something mega like a Slaty-backed Gull or something. I'm really kicking myself for not photographing it - I'll know better in future.

Tom Wickens managed to find the first CHIFFCHAFF of the year, flycatcher along by the Thames last weekend. Mary MacDougall turned up another Coal Tit (surprisingly rare on the patch), this one was in Burgess Field. Adrian Grey reported half a dozen Goosander in the Gullet in Wolvercote along with a few Tufted Duck. The highlight of the week though was when Tom Evans heard a singing CETTI'S WARBLER in the Trap Grounds. Whilst we've had the odd record on the Patch, this is the first one within the Trap Grounds that I know of.

25th January

The floods are a nice large size at present without being so big that they're hard to bird. It's been very "birdy" over the last few days with lots of ducks and gulls to look through. The four (or sometimes five) DUNLIN are still with us, hanging out with the Lapwings. Talking of which, there was a huge count (by Meadow standards) of these lovely plovers this evening with several hundred of them gracing the floods. Scattered in amongst them were a few Golden Plover, the first that I've seen this year though others have already seen them. In amongst the usual ducks were three drake PINTAIL and there were two SHELDUCK present today as well. The gull roost has been reasonably big and with both Iceland and Glaucous Gulls having been seen in the county as well as a few Caspians there's lots to look out for at present though sadly I didn't turn up anything unusual this evening. The pick of the sightings today was a PEREGRINE resting on the grass in the Hinterland between making various passes low over the birds on the flood.

Distant resting Peregrine

The only other news is that I managed to add Coal Tit to the Patch Year List by virtue of a bird in amongst a mixed feeding flock down near the car park. To the north, Adrian Grey reported three TUFTED DUCK on the Gullet pond up in Wolvercote.

Thursday 21st January

I had quite a productive outing to the Meadow today. As the floods were still frozen I thought that I'd have a wander down by the river to look for displaced diving ducks - we sometimes get things like Tufted Duck on the river when all the local lakes are frozen. Sure enough, I'd just got past the sailing club when I spotted a TUFTED DUCK flying down the river. It turned around and headed back towards the Perch where I soon managed to catch up with it on the river. This is a comparatively rare bird for the Meadow though we usually do manage to get it on the year list each year.

Talking of ducks there was a single SHELDUCK opposite the Poplar Trees. Also of note was a (heard-only) calling PHEASANT in the fields over towards Medley Farm. This is another species that surprisingly difficult to get on the list though we do usually manage it. We also had the first wader of the year when I spotted four DUNLIN in amongst the Lapwing on the strip of grass between the frozen floods and the river. There were loads of winter thrushes along the Castle Mill Stream with at least 50 Redwing, lots of Blackbirds and a couple of Fieldfare. Several displaced Teal were lurking along the stream though they are always very wary compared to the more complacent Mallards there. Finally, to round off what was a four year list tick day, Steve Goddard reported a RAVEN flying over the canal at Wolvercote.

Tuesday 19th January

What a difference a few days make! I meant to do a write-up on Friday but in the end didn't have time and then I was away for a couple of days and when I came back what had been a veritable lake of water has suddenly shrunk significantly and is now frozen over during this sudden reversion to more seasonal weather.

In terms of birds I'm enjoying chipping away at the year list and have steadily been winkling out the usual suspects. It's all common stuff but it's nice to re-acquaint oneself with the likes of Treecreeper, Stock Dove, Mistle Thrush, Fieldfare and Meadow Pipit. I did spot a splendid PEREGRINE harrassing the ducks on the floods last week and Friday produced some good birds with 8 SHELDUCK, 5 REDSHANK, 8 GOOSANDER and 11 PINTAIL all frequenting what was then the huge flood. Perhaps the best bird though was what was almost certainly a 2nd or 2rd winter CASPIAN GULL that I had last week. It was quite close on a narrow strip of grass on the far bank and immediately stood out when I scanned through with my bins but before I could get my scope on it it had flown off so I wasn't able to get any photos.

There are quite a few Common Gulls about at present

9th January

So that's the new year well and truly under way now. As is so often the case in January the river has burst it's banks and we're in "semi-lake mode" with just a thin strip of land between the river and the main floods - regular readers will know that that this is my favourite flood configuration. It's always nice to be starting the Patch Year List again, the one time in the year when the common species are actively sought and and appreciated when they're found. So far there have been a few good things to report: the RUFF made it until at least dawn on New Year's Day when Tom Wickens (on an early morning yomp along the river) managed to spot them though they've not been seen since. The BARNACLE GEESE have been around as well though they've not been seen for the last few days. Tom Evans managed to find a real patch rarity in the form of a WOODCOCK that he flushed from the Trap Grounds; he also added WATER RAIL to the list from the same location. Meanwhile Steve Goddard up in Wolvercote has managed to get us MARSH TIT already - another hard to come by species for the Patch.

With the floods so large we've got lots of duck around at present including at least 10 PINTAIL, one SHELDUCK and also reasonable counts of GOOSANDER coming in to roost. We've also got five REDSHANK along the river once again. It's amazing how each winter we always have exactly five of this species along the river. I don't know if it's the same birds each year or if there's some self-imposed Redshank quota the prohibits any more than this but it's quite uncanny! We're attracting reasonable numbers of gulls to the floods each evening but so far just a single YELLOW-LEGGED GULL has been the only bird of interest. It's a good time of year for Caspians and there are also White-wingers to look out for now.

There are quite a few Lapwings on the floods at present

Port Meadow End of Year Review

It's time once again to look back on this year's birding on Port Meadow. There are two useful yardsticks that can be used to compare years: the year list total and the rarities that we've managed to host and by both counts sadly it's been a somewhat disappointing year. Our year list total of just 123 is well below the usual 130+ total that I hope for. Reflecting on this, the Meadow's success on this front is largely down to the vagaries of the flood waters and how much water (if any) we have during the key spring and autumn passage seasons. Sadly, this year the floods dried up before the key spring passage and didn't return until well after the autumn passage period was over. This rather left us scratching around and missing a variety of common waders that we'd normally expect to see in an average year.

On the rarity front there was just one bird to report, a Wryneck that was seen by one birder for five minutes this autumn. It was a great autumn for this species in the county and our bird was one of four that were seen in the county. I do like to have at least one rarity each year on the patch so we've managed to keep this tradition up though it was a shame that the bird didn't linger for more to enjoy it.

Looking back over the year in more detail, January started out flooded and with some proper frozen weather. Highlights of this month were a few Caspian Gulls and a visit by the Home Counties Barnacle Geese.

The Barnacle Geese

Caspian Gull (the rear bird)

There wasn't much to report in February with cold weather and frozen floods keeping many of the birds away. In March things started to kick off with the first migrants starting to appear and the star bird of the month was a splendid Avocet that stopped in briefly. Also noteworthy was a pair of Red-crested Pochard - a good bird for the Meadow.

Meadow Avocet

April was arguable the best month of the year on the Meadow with all the excitement of spring migrants appearing and some floods waters still about to tempt them in though I seem to recall that by this stage they were starting to get rather stale and unattractive. We managed to get a smart drake Garganey on the floods which is always nice to see. A Redstart was found in Burgess Field and we had a Sanderling on the floods for one afternoon. Amazingly we had three more Red-crested Pochards and a Cetti's Warbler spent a few days trying out the ditch that runs alongside Burgess Field before deciding that it wasn't to it's liking. A splendid flock of 18 Whimbrel dropped in for a rest and we managed to get Cuckoo on the year list - sadly this species is becoming all too rare.

Garganey

Sanderling

Three of the Whimbrel (c) Roger Wyatt

Sadly by May the floods had dwindled away and what can be the best month in terms of rarer waders with the possibility of Wood Sandpipers for example, turned instead to a rather poor one. The pick of the birds was a Spotted Flycatcher that was found in Burgess Field.

June and July were their usual quiet selves with butterflies, moths and flowers taking up my time and sadly this theme continued through into August with (in the absence of any floods) a single Redstart sighting being the pick of the birds. September still had no floods so it was left to Burgess Field to provide the action with our star Wryneck sighting and a Spotted Flycatcher the highlights.

Spotted Flycatcher

October offered up a possible Honey Buzzard sighting and a Brent Goose - the latter species is less than annual on the Meadow so I was pleased to find it.

Lone Brent Goose

In November we at least started to get the floods back, courtesy of some prolonged rainfall. By now it was too late for any wader passage though we did start to attract some gulls and the winter ducks came back. The unseasonably mild weather in December meant that there was no bad weather movement at all and whilst we now had some birds back on the floods there wasn't much change in what they were. Goosander started to come in to roost though the gull roost was rather patchy and held nothing of note apart from a single 2w Caspian Gull one evening. We did manage a few additional year ticks in the last few days of the year with a flock of Ruff that lingered, a Barn Owl, a belated Stonechat report and a 1w drake Goldeneye, (probably an all-time Patch first).

The 2w Caspian Gull

1w drake Goldeneye

So that's the Port Meadow year. I do wonder if I have been somewhat spoilt by a great few years on the Patch to start with and that perhaps we are now reverting to more typically birding fare on the Meadow. Only time will tell though of course I will continue to visit this great location - it's still wonderful to have such a fantastic site on one's doorstep.

Thursday 31st December

I went down to the Meadow for "last orders" today and was rewarded with a vast array of birds. The floods have increased in size since my last visit and the river is now threatening to breach the banks with long fingers of flood water already stretching out along the lower lying areas towards the floods themselves. Sadly the weather didn't co-operate and it started pouring with rain and it soon got too dark to see. I reckon that I only got to view less than 50% of the birds there during my visit which just shows how many there were. 

On to specifics: there were two RUFF visible along the shore though the other seven may have been hiding somewhere. 5 SHELDUCK were on show and there was an excellent count of 17 GOOSANDER today, equally the large count that we had a few weeks ago. In amongst the vast gull roost were at least 5 adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS though as I said I wasn't really able to do the roost full justice. 

A Shelduck, taken in sunnier conditions by Roger Wyatt (c)

Tuesday 29th December

You can tell that the Meadow is going through a bit of a purple patch at present by the fact that this is the third blog posting in three nights! I went down for the evening gull roost again and was rewarded with a reasonably sized roost though sadly there was no sign of yesterday's Caspian. The 9 RUFF were back again - had I simply missed them yesterday or had they gone somewhere else to roost? 10 GOOSANDER came in to roost (9 males and 1 female) which was a good count. The most interesting sighting was a 1w drake GOLDENEYE which I found in amongst the Teal. This is a real Patch mega and quite possibly the first record for the floods as well as a very welcome Patch year tick.

1w drake Goldeneye

Also this evening Steve Goodard managed to find a BARN OWL in Burgess Field at dusk - another Patch year tick no less! Talking of which, I met Meadow veteran Matthew Foster today for the first time in quite a while. He quietly works away at his birding but is very much "off-grid" so I only get to hear about what he's seen when I bump into him. He reported a female STONECHAT in Burgess Field about a month or so ago - this is yet another Patch year tick for what has sadly become all too rare a species on the Meadow. So that's three year ticks to add to the total today - it's quite a last-gasp renaissance!

Monday 28th December: Caspian Gull

The Meadow is actually producing some interesting birding at the moment. After the long monotonous spell with very little happening there's been a good bit of variety over the last few days. Partly this is due to the gull roost which has improved with reasonable numbers of large gulls coming in to roost and also now that the floods are quite large there's not so much chance of them all being scared off too easily by a dog or over-zealous walker.

Sadly there was no sign of the Ruff this afternoon but this was more than made up for by finding a splendid 2nd winter CASPIAN GULL in amongst the throng - the first of this autmn/winter though not a year tick as we had a few at the start of the year. Always a treat to find, this individual really jumped out at me as I was scanning the flock at last light.

Apart from that there were just 5 GOOSANDER today (4 males and one red-head). There are good numbers of Wigeon and Teal about and I keep forgetting to mention that the SHOVELER are now back on the floods as well, albeit in modest numbers at present. The only winter species which I would expect at this time but which I'm not seeing in numbers is Golden Plover: there was just a single individual on the floods when I arrived and two more came in to land whilst I was there.

2nd Winter Caspian Gull

Some video of the bird - be warned you may wish to turn down the volume as it's rather windy