18th October

I realised that it's been several weeks since my last update so I thought that I'd better post something. It's been depressingly quiet on the Meadow since our exciting Yellow-browed Warbler and as it's been a rather dry period so far there is no sign of any emerging flood waters at all. Of late there have been surprisingly few Lapwings about and no Golden Plover at all. At least Linnet numbers are increasing and the flock now numbers about 150 birds. Meadow Pipit numbers are still relatively modest but there are plenty of Pied Wagtails about. A few Siskins have been seen, mostly just flying over and I've been seeing several Kestrels of late as well as the usual Kite. I've been keeping an eye out for Stonechats and Whinchats which we've yet to get on the year list but so far I've had no luck.

This Grey Wagtail was being seen regularly a couple of weeks ago

Adrian Gray is still keeping an eye on things up in Wolvercote and recently he reported the following:

"Another trip to the Gullet today - still very, very low water, but the winter ducks are starting to come in. There's at least eight Shoveller, two clear drakes, two drakes just starting to come out of eclipse, and the rest... who knows at the mo? A couple of Teal - one perhaps starting to moult out of eclipse, and a Grey Wagtail busying itself. To my amusement, a passing couple asked if you got Kingfisher there - just as one flew across in front of us! A nice surprise.

Somewhat more bizarrely for the second time I saw a whacking great Terrapin sunning itself - must be at least dinner plate size."

So, it's all rather quiet at present. Once the floods re-emerge then we can look forward to the return of the winter duck and of course all those lovely gulls but until then we're rather scratching around.