Thursday 1st November: AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER

I went for my usual "last hour of light" visit to the Meadow to check up on the gull roost. While there's still light I generally look through everything else first to check up on the waders and ducks etc. In amongst the golden plover flock I soon spotted what turned out to be a juvenile AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. After the false alarm a few weeks ago with the grey-toned golden plover I gave it a good grilling and fortunately this time it looked the real deal. Unfortunately it was found too late by this time for anyone to be able to twitch it so let's hope that it's still around tomorrow morning.

Record shot digiscoped video footage of the bird (c) Gnome

Other birds noted were several DUNLIN, a good number of SNIPE and I think I heard the REDSHANK though I didn't see it and there was no sign of the ruff either. The gull roost was modest in size and didn't hold anything noteworthy. 

For those interested in twitching the American Golden Plover tomorrow, the plover flock presently generally favours the shallower flooded area in the north east corner of the floods, best viewed by looking north from the gate into Burgess Field NR. Alternatively they often settle opposite the gate on the west (river) side of the floods. They are usually very flighty so should only be viewed from a distance. Good luck to all those going at first light tomorrow! 

There was a reported fly-over "lesser" golden plover yesterday at Wilstone reservoir so it may well be the same bird. After a very lean year on the Meadow it's nice finally to get a decent rare bird on the list!

Tuesday 30th October

The Meadow continues to play host to a good variety of winter birds. The duck are still around in about the same number and there is at least the drake PINTAIL about still though I haven't seen the female for this last couple of days. The huge golden plover flock is still there together with its hangers-on DUNLIN (12 yesterday still though only 6 today) and there are still plenty of SNIPE about too. The REDSHANK is still present and now there are two RUFF though no sign of the godwit. Unfortunately there have been no further reports of the short-eared owl so it may well have moved on. The gull roost continues to grow in number with the odd YELLOW-LEGGED GULL the pick of the bunch. Along the Castle Mill stream this morning there were several redwing enjoying the large berry crop.

Addendum
Jarrod Hadfield reported a 3rd winter YELLOW-LEGGED GULL, 2 grey wagtail and both PINTAILS on the floods this morning.

Sunday 28th October

I had a mid-morning visit to the Meadow today to see if any of yesterday's waders were still around. The Meadow is on top form at present with conditions ideal for both ducks and waders and loads of birds to be seen. It's great to have a good bunch of waders around again after quite an absence: there was a single BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, 1 RUFF, 1 REDSHANK, 12 DUNLIN, plenty of SNIPE and the huge golden plover flock. In amongst the usual ducks were the first two PINTAIL of the season and three gadwall. All in all a great selection of winter birds

Shoveler at sunset

 

 

This poor Goldfinch was looking very poorly in my garden today. I took it inside and put it somewhere dark and warm to see if it would recover but sadly it died a few hours later 

Addendum

After my recent posting about birds that we still needed for the year list Steve Goddard e-mailed to say that he remembered seeing a TAWNY OWL back in May in his garden and that he hears them calling regularly throughout the year. So that's another one for the list.

 

Saturday 27th October

I wasn't able to get out until last light today. There was a decent sized gull roost though without my scope I wasn't able to give them the grilling they deserved. However I did hear the piping calls of a REDSHANK. In Burgess Field there was no sign of the owl tonight thought I wasn't able to stay quite as late as I would ideally have liked.

Jodie & Joe from Wolvercote reported (via a comment on this blog - thanks very much!) a handful of BARNACLE GEESE on the floods at around midday today as well as a pair of GODWITS and a RUFF. They also reported the leucistic EGYPTIAN GOOSE which has been in amongst the greylags down at the southern end of the Meadow for several days now.

Friday 26th October

I ended up paying a couple of visits to the Meadow today as I've done something to my back which requires lots of walking to try and loosen it. Making the best of the circumstances I thought that I'd check for the Barnacle Geese this morning though at 9 a.m. there was no sign of them. By way of compensation though I did spot a splendid adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULL loafing on the North Shore with some Lesser Black-backed's. The golden plover flock seems to have grown even more in numbers and the 6 attendant DUNLIN are still there. SNIPE numbers continue to remain much smaller in the absence of any mist. There were a few flocks of fieldfares going over as well as some light skylark passage. No news on the SE Owl so far though if anyone sees it this evening I'll update this entry accordingly.

This morning's adult Yellow-legged gull - the first of the season here.

Thursday 25th October: Short-eared Owl & Barnacle Geese

The weather has started to change today: it's still cloudy but the wind has picked up and blown away the mist. This made the visibility better than of late for my afternoon visit to the Meadow where I met up with Tom Wickens. On the wader front there were still the 6 DUNLIN on the far shore with the 1000+ golden plover and the CURLEW was still around. Without the cover of the fog there were noticeably fewer SNIPE though a few dozen still lingered along the soggy North Shore. The gull roost was average with nothing of note. Tom and I ventured into Burgess Field where we had some good albeit brief views of the SHORT-EARED OWL hunting actively over the fields. As it got dark I had to leave but Tom stayed a bit long and managed to see a flock of 20 BARNACLE GEESE come in to roost at last light. It's always hard to know the provenance of such birds but they are most likely from one of the feral flocks in the surrounding counties. Apparently some of these flocks are deigned by the BOU to be self-sustaining and therefore Category C birds (i.e. tickable) though quite how one tells when they're away from their usual haunts is anyone's guess. Anyway, I've got no qualms about ticking them for the year list as at least with that flock size they're unlikely to be escapees and with the Port Meadow total so low this year I need all the ticks I can get!

I tried to take some video footage of the hunting owl but the combination of the poor light and the fast moving bird meant that I got no where with it. Instead, here are some much more static fungi to contemplate. I've not idea what species they are but of course at this time of year there are loads of interesting ones springing up all over Burgess Field.

Wednesday 24th October

The weather has been the same for several days now: a blanket of white cloud and misty with very little wind. This afternoon once more there were loads of birds to sift through with even more golden plover (1200?), now with 6 DUNLIN in attendance, at least 100 SNIPE (probably a lot more but they're so well hidden and hard to pick out in the mist at a distance) and hundreds of wigeon, teal and shoveler. A reasonable gull roost once more held a few COMMON GULLS and greater black-backed gulls in amongst the usual throng. I did a quick tour of Burgess Field as the light started to fade but there was no sign of the owl though a fly-through PEREGRINE was some compensation.

Tuesday 23rd October: Short-eared Owl

Suddenly the Meadow has got "birdy" again. It's almost like a switch has been flipped: the dull, damp conditions and the rain has softened up the surrounding grass and the patch is now alive with birds. There are of course the usual winter ducks: the wigeon are widely spread out along the North Shore and the Hinterland with the teal and shoveler dabbling along the margins. The golden plover flock is still about one thousand strong with the striking grey-toned bird still in amongst them. Suddenly we've got waders again: there have been two or three DUNLIN in amongst the plover flock, yesterday there was a REDSHANK with them as well and today there was a CURLEW on the Hinterland. It's also SNIPE city out there at present with the boggy conditions attracting at least 100 birds along the North Shore.

There was a good gull roost tonight with 8 COMMON GULLS in amongst them (all adults apart from one first winter), 1 greater black-backed gull and a couple of herring gulls in amongst the lesser black-backed contingent.

The pride of place however goes to a SHORT-EARED OWL sighting in Burgess Field, seen independently by myself a couple of days ago and Alexander Martin today.

A couple of action snaps of the Golden Plover in flight - these shots belie just 

how gloomy it actually was out there this evening.

Sunday 21st October

It's been a very quiet week on the Meadow. The floods continue to extend with the rainy weather but are still attracting just the same birds albeit in increasing numbers. So good numbers of shoveler, teal and wigeon, golden plover, lapwing and plenty of geese about. On the passerine front pied wagtails, linnets and meadow pipits are still around in reasonable numbers.
 
Mid-week I went for a run and managed to spot a rather interesting plover in amongst the large (1000+) golden plover flock. It looked remarkably grey-ish (though clearly not a grey plover) and appeared to have a rather attenuated look to it though I only had my bins and my point & shoot camera with me at the time.

Here's my P&S record shot: it's the right-hand most bird in this photo.

Given that we have had American Golden Plover on the Meadow a few years ago I gave it as good a grilling as I was able to with my bins but decided in the end that it was just a rather oddly coloured standard Golden Plover - for one thing structurally it looked identical to the surrounding birds. A couple of days later I re-found it when I had my scope and bins and managed to get some footage. I also saw it in flight where it clearly had white underwing coverts which confirmed it as not a "lesser golden plover" of any description. Still it at least gave me something to think about.

youTube have done some post-processing to the video to brighten it up a bit which is why the colours are all rather strange. You can see that the bird stands out in being remarkably un-golden though it's not an American Golden Plover. 

Today, due to family commitments I wasn't able to get out until it was nearly dusk so I thought that I'd have a wander around Burgess Field to see if I could find the barn owl that had been reported there recently. I had no luck with the owls though I did find 5 SNIPE whilst tramping around and spotted my first flock of REDWING flying around. It was also great to see the geese flying in at last light. The gull roost is still rather modest though it's early days yet.

Monday 15th October

After my week away I was keen to get back to the patch to see how it was faring. Remarkably, there'd been no reports from the Meadow whilst I was away and I wondered whether this was because no one had bothered to visit or whether there was nothing to see. After my visit today I realise that it was more likely to be the latter unfortunately. The floods themselves are nice and large and looking good but at present they are rather birdless. The usual winter ducks of wigeon, teal and shoveler are all present, there were a few groups of gulls loafing around, mostly black-headed though with a few lesser black-backed in amongst them. The golden plover flock was looking very healthy with about 750 birds I estimated, and there were a few lapwing scattered around. There are plenty of linnets, the odd meadow pipit is still about as are the pied wagtails. So all the usual "default" birds but little else. Still, soon the clocks will go back and then the gulling season begins - perhaps that will turn up something of note.

Friday 5th October

All quiet on the western front still: Jarrod Hadfield checked out the Meadow this morning and apart from the usual golden plover, lapwings and ducks the only bird of note was a WHEATEAR with even the dunlin and the godwit having moved on.

I will be away for a week from tomorrow Saturday off birding down in Cornwall. This will give you all the chance to grip me off so please do take this opportunity to check out the Meadow and Burgess Field. If you're particularly keen then obvious patch year ticks that we still need include Stonechat, Knot, Spotted Redshank, Tawny Owl, Rock, Water & Tree Pipit and Redstart.

I'll still post updates to the blog remotely so please either e-mail me your sightings or post them on Going Birding or add them as a comment to this message. If you feel so inclined you can follow my Cornish exploits on my Cornish blog: Pendeen Birding.

I leave you with this lovely Chestnut moth which I caught in my trap in my garden this week.

Thursday 4th October

I haven't been able to get out to the Meadow for a couple of days now as I've been fighting off (unsuccessfully) a cold that the rest of the family has kindly passed on to me. However, after a couple of days of taking it easy I was getting a severe case of cabin fever so this morning went for a brief visit to the Patch in the autumn sunshine. The floods are looking very healthy now with all the recent rain having done its trick and are starting to push out from their narrow channel again back towards the river area. This all looks great for waders and as well as the ever-increasing golden plover flock (now about 300 birds) there was a single DUNLIN and a juvenile BLACK-TAILED GODWIT to show for my efforts. The usual winter ducks are looking nicely settled in though I expect numbers to increase steadily over the next month or two.

Lapwing are often neglected but they're lovely birds. I did have a picture of an Avocet, taken from the OOS Bulletin which had been reported as being at Port Meadow. Unfortunately, this actually turned out to have been at Radley so I've had to remove the retrospective tick.

Sunday 30th September

With the passing of the autumn equinox we are now well and truly into autumn. Fortunately the rain has meant that the floods are still well topped up and looking quite healthy but despite this there has been rather a lack of waders on the Meadow this week with just the odd DUNLIN in amongst the ever-increasing golden plover flock worthy of note. Winter duck numbers are increasing too with good numbers of wigeon, teal, shoveler and mallard all settling in nicely and enjoying the floods. There was a good passage of hirundines this morning with house and sand martins and swallows all hawking low over the floods, re-fuelling for their journey south. As we enter October we are coming to the best month for vagrant birds so let's hope that something good turns up soon.

It's nice to have the Wigeon back

Monday 25th September

What a difference a couple of days of rain makes! Last posting I was bemoaning the fact that the floods were all but gone but now they're almost completely covered again, albeit with a rather shallow layer of water. To be honest that rain has come just in time - much more of a delay and the ground would have dried out enough so that any ensuing rain would have soaked away rather than staying. Anyway, I'm pleased to have my patch back for a while at least and with some more rain it should consolidate nicely. 

In very windy conditions today there weren't many waders around apart from a single windswept RINGED PLOVER but suddenly the winter ducks are back in force with several dozen WIGEON back, looking as lovely as ever. Teal have been around for several weeks now but for me it's when the wigeon return that the winter ducks are properly in. I just love their piping calls! There were a few SHOVELER in the mix as well.

My only complaint is that the shoreline is very churned up at the moment which makes it rather hard to pick birds out from in the mounds of earth and a skulking wader could easily be missed - not something that you want to do at this time of year!

Golden Plover (c) Roger Wyatt

Saturday 22nd September

Sadly the floods are all but gone now with a small pond-size area of water left by what used to be Burgess Channel. I've been dutifully checking it out when I'm able but there have only been a few DUNLIN and RINGED PLOVER left to pick over the shoreline. There was a returning WHEATEAR working its way along the Meadow mid week and the RUFF was still about for the first couple of days. There has been a noticeable increase in meadow pipits of late with quite a few of them scouring the mud and grass for morsels along with the pied wagtails. Golden plover numbers continue to increase and the count is well over a hundred birds by now. Along the Castle Mills stream there have been a few Migrant Hawkers and the odd Brown Hawker still.

 Reflective Heron

This ugly looking Black-headed Gull has been around the Meadow for about a month now. I think that it lost all it's head feathers which it's slowly growing back. It seems to be able to feed quite happily.

 A Bar-head Goose - no doubt blown off course from it's Asian migration - Not!

As you can see I've been reduced to photographing some of the everyday birds on the Meadow. With rain forecast for much of this coming week the floods may well spring back into life - let's hope so!

Saturday 15th September

The continuing Indian summer is taking its toll on the floods which are now down to a depressingly small area and without some sustained rain shortly they will in fact dry up altogether. Wader numbers are diminishing as the floods shrink: over the last couple of days there have been a few BLACK-TAILED GODWITS (though these had gone by Saturday), the RUFF still and a handful of RINGED PLOVER and DUNLIN. By way of some compensation there are a few YELLOW WAGTAILS kicking about, golden plover numbers are increasing, and there was a RAVEN soaring over the floods on Saturday but it's really a matter of praying for rain right now. It would be a shame to lose the floods during the peak time for vagrants now.

Along the Castle Mill stream there were quite a few dragonflies this morning with one Brown Hawker, one Common/Ruddy (Cruddy?) Darter and three Migrant Hawkers. Still no Redstart yet.

One of the Black-tailed Godwits (c) Roger Wyatt

 A camouflaged mystery birder waiting for something to come close enough...

...there's not much left of the flood water now.

Wednesday 12th September

Typical! I go out of the county for a day (to Rainham for the Baillon's Crake since you ask - see Gnome's Birding Diary once I've written it up) and a bunch of nice birds turn up on the patch. Nothing too gripping but at least Roger Wyatt was on hand to see what was about. Below is the list of what he found

9 Black-tailed Godwit
38 Golden Plover
1 Ruff
5 Dunlin
7 Ringed Plover
2 Green Sandpiper
3 Yellow Wagtail

The previous day there'd been 13 Black-tailed Godwits but the Ruff and Sandpipers were new in.

 Ruff (c) Roger Wyatt

Monday 11th September

Not much has changed since my last post: the floods are continuing to retreat at a depressing rate though a good period of rain would soon top them up again. On the wader front a flock of 5 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, rising to seven by Monday was the highlight. Apart from that there were just 3 RINGED PLOVER and 6 DUNLIN worthy of note. There are a few YELLOW WAGTAILS kicking around and the golden plover flock gets larger each time I visit: it's up to over 30 birds now.

The original flock of five Black-tailed Godwits

Friday 7th September

With the lovely settled "Indian Summer" weather that we've been having this week, the birding has been rather poor as expected. The sunny conditions have been drying out the floods which are looking rather depleted now and in sore need of a top up. Hopefully (from a bird point of view) some more traditional autumn weather will be along shortly. Our plethora of wonderful waders from last month is now a distant memory and we're left scratching around for anything that we can find: there have been 4 RINGED PLOVER and up to 3 DUNLIN on the floods but that's basically been it. Lapwing and golden plover numbers are steadily growing with over 20 of the latter now present, often hunkered down in some of the cattle hoof prints so only their heads are showing. YELLOW WAGTAILS are now starting to appear in increasing numbers in amongst the cattle with at least 4 counted today. 

In my garden over the last few days I've noticed quite a few migrant Silver-Y moths nectaring on the buddleia at dusk. By day the same plant is attracting Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshells and earlier in the week there was a Holly Blue in the garden as well.

 Ovipositing Brown Hawker on the Castle Mill Stream

I went for a run around the patch today to check out the areas other than the floods. The Trap Grounds pond held lots of dragonflies: one Brown Hawker and lots of Common/Ruddy Darters. Burgess Field was almost completely birdless and the only butterflies I saw was a single Small Heath and a couple or Red Admirals. The Castle Mill stream was more interesting with a pair of Brown Hawkers (the female was ovipositing - see photo above) and one or two Migrant Hawkers. The highlight of the trip though was finding a splendid SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (a patch year tick) in the bushes by the stream towards the car park. These increasingly scarce birds don't ever linger on the patch and it's just a matter of luck in coming across one on the spring or autumn passage. Now if only I could find a Redstart on the patch!

 

Record shot of the Spotted Flycatcher (I only had my P&S camera with me)

Sunday 2nd September.

So here we are in September already: August seems to have flown by with nothing out of the ordinary to report though we certainly have had a good selection of waders. Birds of note since my last update have included: the 7 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, 2 RUFF and 1 GREENSHANK, good numbers of RINGED PLOVER and increasing DUNLIN counts and good numbers of COMMON SANDPIPERS. However, it was noticeable that towards the end of the weak the first autumn nip was in the air and certainly the birds felt it as a lot of them left. By Sunday morning all that remained were 2 black-tailed godwits, 13 ringed plover and 5 dunlin. A further sign of the advancing Autumn is the fact that Golden plover numbers have been increasing with 8 birds present by Sunday. Other birds of note have been a few YELLOW WAGTAILS, a single WHEATEAR on the 28th (Dave Lowe) and a juv/1w MEDITERRANEAN GULL on the same date (Jarrod Hadfield).

Readers may remember that one of the Black-tailed Godwits was ringed. Both Roger Wyatt and Jarrod Hadfield reported it (I did too when I first found it though I think that I mis-identified one of the colours as no-one got back to me). Jarrod wrote a nice summary of it's movements:

It is of icelandic race, and has been recorded 43 times since been ringed In France. Below is a potted history:

Wintered in France 2008-2009
Autumn in France 2009
Wintered in France & later in Holland 2010-2011
Wintered in Spain & later in Holland 2011-2012

Seen on Autumn passage in UK:

July 2010 Lincolnshire
July 2011 East Yorkshire
July 2012 Oxford

The bird in question showing off some of his rings (c) Roger Wyatt