End of Autumn Update

With the first cold weather spell upon us, we are ushering out autumn and starting full-on winter. The second half of autumn actually has been pretty productive on the patch with quite a few reasonable birds. What's more the shamefull year list is now looking much more respectable and can reasonably hold its head up in the historic archives.

October

Things kicked off in style on the 9th when a Yellow-browed Warbler was heard to call twice near the allotments. Unfortunately it wasn't heard again nor seen. It's been a spectacular autumn in Oxon for this species with half a dozen different records.

On the 22nd an adult Whooper Swan arrived on the Meadow. This winter swan is very much less than annual so it was exciting to see it. What's more it stayed until 26th giving plenty of time for people to catch up with it. On the same day a Rock or Water Pipit was heard and seen to fly over. Unfortunately it wasn't found again and will have to go down as a combined species tick.

The Whooper Swan courtesy of Thomas Miller

Fly-over ticks were very much the theme for the end of the month with some diligent vis migging from one observer paying dividends with some really big patch Megas. The first was a Yellowhammer on the 25th. This is only the second record that I know of so it's real patch gold. This was followed on the 28th by 3 Hawfinches going over. This is very much a Hawfinch year in the country and county so it was good that Port Meadow got in on this action.

Apart from these particular records, in October we had up to 300 Barnacle Geese, up to 3 Goosander, 4 Shelduck, the feral Ross's Goose on-and-off and a weird Gadwall x Wigeon hybrid. 

The feral Ross's Goose courtesy of Thomas Miller

 

The "Gadgeon" (or is it a "Wigwall"), courtesy of Thomas Miller

On the wader front we had up to 9 Black-tailed Godwits and a Ruff that was seen in flight on a couple of occasions with the Golden Plover flock but never seen on the ground. We had a 1w Mediterranean Gull seen on one occasion. Stonechat were back in amongst the Thistles with up to 3 seen in various places. A Cetti's Warbler spent a few days along the Castle Mill Stream before it (or another) was found in the more usual location of the Trap Ground pond. The semi-resident Great White Egret was seen on-and-off throughout the month. Redwing started to arrive in numbers, heralding in the change in seasons.

The "usual" Great White Egret, courtesy of Thomas Miller

November

November kicked off in style on the 1st with another fly-over Hawfinch along with an adult Mediterranean Gull briefly on the flood. 

 

A record shot of the Hawfinch, courtesy of Thomas Miller

The adult Mediterranean Gull

On the 11th three Whooper Swans turned up late morning though these only stayed for one day. The Meadow hasn't had two different Whooper Swan records within one year before to my knowledge.

 

The Three Whooper Swans

On the 19th there was a spectacular record of a flock of 14 Kittiwakes circling over the floods for a few minutes before heading north. What was most impressive is that the observer was deliberately looking for this species in the light of good inland movement being reported over the country. This must be pretty close to the record county count for this species.

Some of the 14 Kittiwakes, courtesy of Thomas Miller

Finally on the 26th a couple of Brambling were recorded flying around near Burgess Field gate. Now that the Burgess Field feeders are no longer being stocked, this species is once more very hard to come by on the patch.

Apart from these headline birds we had a Curlew drop in for a visit on one occasion. Up to 2 Redshank and up to 6 Dunlin were also recorded. 30 Cattle Egrets were spotted flying around hear Wytham Hill on one occasion, this being the usual Wytham flock that is more often in the fields near Farmoor Reservoir. A couple of Shelduck were seen on one occasion and 4 Pochard were recorded via eBird. One evening gull roost yielded a 1w Caspian Gull and a candidate heinei Russian Common Gull. On one occasion a pair of Peregrines spent some time terrorising the birds on the frozen floods. The Great White Egret was still around on and off.

One of the two Peregines harrassing the birds in the snow, courtesy of Thomas Miller

So now we are moving into the last month of the year. There is no obvious low hanging fruit still to expect on the year list but you never know what might turn up.