2024 End of Year Review

In the customary style of this blog, the end of year review is only being posted once we are a couple of weeks into the New Year. Still, it's that time of year when we are all wanting to hibernate anyway, so sitting down to a review of the past year with a hot cup of cocoa might not be such a bad idea after all!

January kicked off in great style when the Patch hosted between 2 and 8 Waxwings at the end of Plater Drive. They were there on and off for about a week and were much admired by visitors far and wide. It had been a few years since the county had been graced by these charismatic birds so it was great to have them so close at hand.

Waxwings above and below

 

 

Another less than annual species for the Patch is Jack Snipe. This secretive species almost certainly always visits the patch in the winter but they are so hard to see that they usually go unnoticed. However, thanks to some nocturnal ringing efforts some were caught and ringed.

One of the ringed Jack Snipe

We also had two overwintering Siberian Chiffchaff at the start of the year, one of which had been ringed. 

One of the two Siberian Chiffchaff, courtesy of Ben Sheldon

As we moved towards the end of winter there started to be some wader movement. We had large flocks of Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin passing through but the standout record was a flock of three Avocet that dropped in briefly for a few days.

The three Avocet

The winter gulling produced the usual suspects. These days Caspian Gulls are to be expected and we had plenty of those along with Yellow-legged Gulls and some Mediterranean Gulls. Great White Egrets started to be seen regularly on the floods, a theme which would continue throughout the year as this species established itself as a Patch regular. The peak count this year was 5 birds on the floods at the same time!

Spring migration was more a trickle than a flood to start with. This was largely due to a huge blocking pattern of weather over Spain which was holding everything back. This resulted in a very poor start to the migrant season with far smaller numbers than we might typically expect. 

A Grasshopper Warbler caught in the ringing net

The blocking weather pattern continued throughout most of April but just towards the end of the month and the start of May it relented enough to let some birds through. Finally we had some decent birds, including a female (Thunbergi) Grey-headed Wagtail. While this is only a subspecies, it's a pretty rare bird with only a handful recorded in the county.

The female Grey-headed Wagtail courtesy of Steve Sansom

Another good bird which turned up was a Glossy Ibis. In recent years this has become much more regular but it's still a pretty decent bird for the Meadow

The Glossy Ibis courtesy of Steve Lavington

The combination of the blocking weather and the fact that the rather full floods had resulted in a rather poorly defined wader-unfriendly shoreline meant that it was a very poor spring for waders in general. Indeed we didn't get Little Ringed Plover (normally a Meadow staple) on the list until the end of May. We also never got Wood Sandpiper nor Bar-tailed Godwit nor Green Sandpiper which we've managed every year for the last few years.

Still, we did have some larger "wading" species with a splendid Spoonbill dropping in as well as a second Glossy Ibis. The former had been ringed in Denmark before overwintering at the Hayle estuary down in Cornwall. In fact it had been seen there the previous day to being found on the Meadow which shows just how far it had travelled in one day.

The first winter Spoonbill courtesy of Thomas Miller

As we moved into summer there was little else to report. We did have an unseasonal Avocet for one day in June and a probable fly-over Baltic Gull that couldn't be confirmed. With the floods drying up, focus switched to summer activities such as insects and flowers. Because of the weather it was a poor year for Odonata in general but we did manage Downy Emerald on the Trap Grounds pond. This species has become more common in the county recently. Sadly we lost our Small Red-eyed Damselflies and none were seen this year. Willow Emeralds on the other hand were doing well and we had up to 6 reported. A bit off patch, but up at Dukes Lock pond a colony of Variable Damselflies was discovered this year with a "probable" in a Wolvercote garden. Despite the large number of Lesser Emperors recorded in the county there was no sign of any on the patch. Talking of insects, Glow Worms were still to be found in Burgess Field at night. Also in Burgess Field were the usual Bee and Pyramidal Orchids. An Otter was seen in the ditch bordering the allotments on one occasion.

Willow Emeral is now well established in the Trap Grounds

The Little Owls were again seen on the Patch though sadly no youngsters were spotted this year. Presumably, the poor weather is to blame for this.

Little Owl courtesy of Matthew Lloyd

Autumn came without too much fuss. We did manage a couple of Redstarts in Burgess Field and a couple of fly-over Tree Pipits in Wolvercote but we never got Spotted Flycatcher nor Whinchat this year. Mercifully the floods arrived early this autumn and we managed a definite Baltic Gull. Until recently it wasn't thought possible to identify this subspecies of Lesser Black-backed Gull in the field until our own Thomas Miller wrote this seminal blog post on the subject.

The 2w Baltic Gull Gull courtesy of Thomas Miller

Things rather stepped up a gear as we moved into October and we ended up having a very good run up until the end of the year.  A calling Yellow-browed Warbler made it onto the Patch Year List in what was a record breaking year in the county for this attractive Siberian warbler. A Whooper Swan dropped in and stayed about a week. This was the first of several sightings of this scarce county species, with a flock of 3 being seen for few hours a few weeks later on the Meadow. 

The flock of three Whooper Swans

One of the main themes of the last couple of months of the year was that of fly-over patch ticks. We managed to add a Rock/Water Pipit to the list as a combined species tick when one was heard to fly-over briefly though sadly it wasn't seen again. Yellowhammer (a rare patch bird) was seen to fly-over before a pair of them were seen a few weeks later.briefly near Aristotle Lane exit. We had some flyover Hawfinch sightings as part of the autumn national invasion. One of the most amazing records was a flock of 14 Kittiwakes. A fly-through Merlin was a great patch year tick. Finally, a Pink-footed Goose caught on camera at dusk in the gloom was an amazing year tick!

Above some of the Kittiwake flock and below a fly-over Hawfinch, both courtesy of Thomas Miller

Other good birds for the last couple of months included a Knot. This less than annual species made up a little for the otherwise very poor year for waders. There was also a candidate Russian Heinei Common Gull. A regular feral Ross's Goose was around for much of the latter part of the year and a hybrid Gadwall x Wigeon made for an interesting diversion. Finally a gorgeously confiding Little Gull graced the southern end of the floods for a day or two.

The Little Gull courtesy of Thomas Miller

The year ended as it began with a Siberian Chiffchaff back by Burgess Field gate. What was amazing was that this bird turned out to be the same bird that had been ringed the previous year and had (presumably) been all the way to Siberia and back again in the meantime.

In terms of raw stats, the year list finished on 141 (including the feral Snow Geese which are certainly sustainable Cat C in my book though maybe not officially). We missed some obvious stuff like Green and Wood Sandpiper and Bar-tailed Godwit, Spotted Flycatcher and Whinchat but we got some good birds that we wouldn't have expected. 

In terms of the much coveted Port Meadow Bird of the Year award the short list is an interesting mix of local scarcities and a couple of nationally scarce sub-species.

Grey-headed Wagtail (subspecies)
Spoonbill
Baltic Gull (subspecies)
Yellowhammer
Hawfinch
Kittiwake
Pink-footed Goose
Merlin
Yellow-browed Warbler
Siberian Chiffchaff (subspecies)

I noticed as I compiled this list that every bird on it had been found by Thomas Miller. This is only fitting as one of the key themes of the year has been his "no bird shall escape" approach, accompanied by some stunning photography thanks to his sharp reflexes and his fancy new camera. So in the end I presented him with the short list and he chose the Baltic Gull, largely as it's the rarest bird nationally on the list.

So, that was 2024. Now the year list has been reset and it's time to start all over again. Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

December Update

In typical tardy style, despite it now being January, this is only the December monthly update with the end of year review yet to come. Still, it's a testament to some good end of year birding that there is a fair bit to write about for this last month. The quality of the records are almost entirely down to the efforts of Thomas Miller whose great keeness and determination that "no bird shall escape" has paid off handsomely in the form of some cracking finds this month. What's more, thanks to his new high-tech camera and some very fast relexes, he's managed to capture most of these birds on "film" even though they were often fly-overs in gloomy conditions.

The first thing of note was the return of the Siberian Chiffchaff on the 1st December to it's usual area near Burgess Field gate. The reason why we can tell that it's the same one is because it was sporting the ring that was placed on it last year by the local ringing team. To have a Siberian Chiffchaff travel all the way to Siberia (presumably) and then all the way back to Port Meadow for two successive winters is quite a remarkably feat!

The ringed Siberian Chiffchaff back for its second year, courtesy of Thomas Miller

The Knot made it into the start of December by being spotted again on the 1st though it wasn't seen subsequently. On the 4th two Yellowhammer were seen briefly in the hedge by the Artistotle Lane exit by a single oberserver. This species is a Patch Mega though one was seen to flyover last month so it's not a year tick. We had another Patch Mega in the form of a flyover Pink-footed Goose at dusk on the 11th. It was only through the quick actions of Mr. Miller, who managed to get a photo of it as it flew over, that allowed the ID to be confirmed.

The fly-over Pink-footed Goose, courtesy of Thomas Miller

This amazing purple patch continued when an adult Little Gull was found on the 13th. It showed astonishingly well allowing for Thomas Miller to take an amazing sequence of photos of it - you can see them here. It stayed around for a day or two more but became much more elusive.

The Little Gull courtesy of Thomas Miller

On the 15th a second Siberian Chiffchaff was seen, associating with the original bird. Finally. on the 23rd we had yet another Patch rarity when a Merlin flew through the floods briefly. This species is becoming more common on the patch in recent years though they are only ever fly-throughs and you need to be in the right place at the right time to see them.

The fly-through Merlin courtesy of Thomas Miller

Apart from the above headline birds, we've had a good number of Caspian Gulls of various ages in the roost in the evenings along with an assortment of Yellow-legged Gulls and on one evening an adult Mediterranean Gull. Up to 3 Shelduck were seen on the floods along with the usual feral Ross's Goose and just one red-head Goosander. The usual Barnacle Geese were present for the first half of the month in good numbers (up to 300) before disappearing. We also had an influx of Pintail with up to 100 spending a couple of days on the floods before the colder weather pushed them off. There weren't many waders: just up to 6 Dunlin and a hapless Black-tailed Godwit that was taken by a Peregine. Finally, at least one Stonechat was seen in the first half of the month.

The adult Mediterranean Gull, courtesy of Thomas Miller

Caspian Gull, courtesy of Thomas Miller

Peregrine taking a Black-tailed Godwit, courtesy of Thomas Miller