Merry Christmas!

The Port Meadow Birding blog wishes all its readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Sunday 23rd December

I had an errand to run down the Botley Road this afternoon so I thought that whilst I was in the area I'd check out the Binsey area to the west of Port Meadow. In particular I was interested in the owls that Tom Wickens had reported on Friday: not only had he heard and seen several Tawny Owls but he'd also heard a possible Little Owl though it had only called twice and he'd not been sure of it. 

I arrived at around 3:30 by which time it was getting rather dark. The Meadow is back in full-on lake mode with the waters reaching all the way up to the top of Burgess Field NR. When it's like this it's rather difficult to bird as all the birds are up along the North shore. I wandered along the river as far as the Poplars to get a better view but it was getting too dark to see much though I did make out a few GOOSANDER floating about in the distance. 

At dusk as I was wandering back I did manage to hear a LITTLE OWL calling several times at a reasonably close distance which is a great result as there have been no reports of any for several years on the patch. Back near Medley Farm despite hanging around for quite a while I only heard a TAWNY OWL call briefly twice. As I drove along the road I kept seeing moths in the car headlights. At this time of year there are only a few on the wing and they would have Winter Moths. I even nipped out of the car to photograph one that was resting momentarily on the curb though it never put its wings down so I could get a full view of it.

A Winter Moth

Friday 21st December

I didn't get down to the Meadow but fortunately Tom Wickens did. He reported that the floods were greatly extended so the birding was rather difficult. It was rather quiet on the bird front but he managed to spot 3 REDSHANK on the distant flood shoreline. The highlight was hearing several TAWNY OWLS calling along Binsey Lane at dusk.

Thursday 20th December

Yesterday in miserable rainy conditions there was unfortunately no sign of the Iceland gull despite a few birders turning out to look for it. In fact visibility was so bad that I couldn't really make out much at all.

Today the floods were up again on the back of yesterday's rain so it was back to the west bank of the river for viewing. It was remarkably mild and there was a good gull roost to sift through. Highlight of the evening was a couple of MEDITERRANEAN GULLS, one adult and one first winter, as well as at least 20 common gulls. On the duck front there was a SHELDUCK on the floods, the first for quite a while this year and at least 6 GOOSANDER came in to roost as well. The golden plover flock was larger, being about 500 birds though I couldn't spot any other waders this evening apart from the usual lapwings. I did have a dark-mantled, streaky-headed gull in the roost which had me wondering about Azorean Yellow-legged Gull but after reviewing the video (which is too poor for public viewing) I think it's probably just a streaky argentatus.

Some record shot video of the two Med. gulls this evening

Tuesday 18th December: Iceland Gull & Bar-tailed Godwits

Yesterday I didn't visit the floods but instead went to see if the Waxwings were still around on Frenchay Road though unfortunately there was no sign of them at midday.

Today I was back on the Meadow for my usual last hour viewing and with the river still high once more I viewed from the west river bank back across towards the strip of grass between the river and the floods. There was plenty to see today: to start with there were a couple of BAR-TAILED GODWITS on the grass island near the river. Usually at this time of year one expects to see Black-tailed Godwits and so this is a rather unusual county record. The golden plover flock numbered around 300 birds with 4 DUNLIN in amongst them. On the floods themselves there were five GOOSANDER, comprising 3 males and two red-heads. There were also around 10 or so PINTAILS (mostly drakes). The best was reserved for last though when in the fading light I picked out a first-winter ICELAND GULL in amongst the throng. It was a rather grubby looking individual but its pale primaries stood out nicely in the fading light. Three YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS were also worthy of note this evening.

One of the two Bar-tailed Godwits taking a rest

Strictly record-shot quality video footage of the Iceland Gull

Sunday 16th December: Waxwings

I went down to the Meadow today for the first time in a few days to find that the river was up again and there was once more just a narrow strip of grass separating the floods from the river. It was very much a case of the usual birds being around with a reasonable golden plover flock along the North Shore and about 50 lapwings also knocking around. In amongst the ducks were 7 PINTAILS (mostly drakes) and a couple of gadwall. There were three REDSHANK over near the river beyond the Perch. The gull roost was relatively modest with a couple of YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS (adult and 3rd winter) being the only birds of note.

Elsewhere, Ian Curtis and Adrian Gray reported at least 10 GOOSANDER over in the Gullet in Wolvercote. The highlight of the weekend though were some WAXWINGS feeding by the bike racks next to the Trap Grounds on Frenchay Road just by the canal bridge (about here). Tom Evans reported 10 of them on Saturday and I managed to find six of them today at around midday. They really are gorgeous birds and well worth taking a look at.

Waxwings

Friday 14th December

It's been a rather strange week with the weather playing quite a large part in the various visits that I've made. On Tuesday it was the combination of cold and extreme fog which meant that it was almost impossible to see the birds that were toughing it out on the then partially frozen floods. I did manage to make out several BLACK-TAILED GODWITS still though not much else. By Wednesday the freeze proper had set in and the floods were completely frozen apart from a large pool in which a very large number of duck were crowded: there must have been a good couple of hundred teal. Of particular note was a total of 16 PINTAIL crammed into this small pool. On Friday the weather had turned to rain and the floods were starting to thaw out though there was still quite a bit of ice. In rather miserable conditions the best I could find was a couple of PINTAIL and several SNIPE. With milder weather forecast for the next few days the floods should soon be back in their stride and with an Iceland gull now kicking around the county there's plenty still to look out for.

One other item to report, Matthew Foster found a flock of six LESSER REDPOLL in Burgess Field last week.

Because of the weather conditions I don't have any photos myself

 so here's a stunning Redpoll photographed by Wayne Bull (c) 

Check out his great blog here

Sunday 9th December

I wasn't able to get down to the Meadow this weekend but fortunately it was well covered on Saturday at least with reports from two observers (thanks to Sydney Penner and Alex Martin). The combined totals are:

1 Dunlin
5 Black-tailed Godwit
9 Redshank
7 Ruff
1 Yellow-legged Gull
20 Snipe
A couple of drake Pintails.
The Brent Goose still in the South East corner near the Aristotle Lane entrance.

The hot county news on Sunday was of a drake Falcated Duck just over the hill at Farmoor. It's always hard to assess the credentials of a bird like this but for what it's worth it was un-ringed, fully winged and wary. As a dabbling duck it's not really suited to Farmoor so I'm really hoping that it will hop over the hill and take up residence with the Wigeon and Teal on the Meadow.

Coming to the Meadow soon?

Friday 7th December

Another late afternoon visit to the Meadow today found things pretty similar to yesterday. The BRENT GOOSE was in the same spot, looking very much at home - if he stays too long I'll have to give him a name, something like Brendon perhaps. The BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, RUFF and REDSHANK were all still about though I didn't see the Dunlin today. Now that the floods have receded enough for there to be lots of grass again the golden plovers are back in good numbers. In amongst the gull roost there were a couple of adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS in what was a rather small roost.

"Brendon" the Brent Goose - I don't know how easy it is to sex a 

Brent Goose, perhaps it should be "Brenda" instead

Thursday 6th December: Brent Goose & Caspian Gull

I haven't been able to get out to the Meadow over the previous two days but I was intrigued to hear of a sighting yesterday of a Brent Goose that had been reported to Ian Lewington. Therefore, this afternoon with some time on my hands I decided to check it out. The floods have receded a bit more and now there is a perfect narrow strip of grass between the river and the flood waters. The latter are partially frozen at present though the river flow is managing to keep the western half ice free still. As expected the birds were all congregating on this grass island at a nice close distance. As I walked along the west bank of the river almost the first bird that I saw was indeed the DARK-BELLIED BRENT GOOSE feeding away opposite the sailing club. Close by there was a host of waders with now 7 RUFF, the four BLACK-TAILED GODWITS still, 5 REDSHANK and one DUNLIN all showing nicely just across the river. 

Although it was still a while before dusk there were already quite a few gulls around and I soon came across a gorgeous first winter CASPIAN GULL on the floods. Amazingly this is the fourth different individual of this species that we've had in about a month now. We don't get so many juvenile/first-winter birds of any gull species on the Meadow, certainly not compared to somewhere like Appleford so it was nice to see a first winter as a change from the usual adult birds.

A couple of digiscoped shots of the Brent Goose...

...and some videograbs of the Caspian Gull...

...as well as some record shot Caspian video.

The Meadow has been making great strides over the last month or so with lots of new year ticks and the Brent Goose adds one more to the year tally as well as being another personal patch life tick following on from the Marsh Tit. With the floods in the state that they're in at present the Meadow really is on top form and if anyone fancies some top class winter birding then I can thoroughly recommend a visit down to the Meadow before the floods go down too much.

Monday 4th December

Today was the first time in four days that I've visited the Meadow. Partly it was that I had a busy weekend with family activities but also the fact that the floods have been so extensive makes it rather difficult to bird. However, today curiosity got the better of me and I went for a midday walk in the winter sunshine to check out the floods. I found that whilst they are still very much doing a good imitation of a sizeable lake, the north shoreline had now receded so that it was roughly in line with the north west corner of Burgess Field. What's more there is now a very thin sliver of grass along the river shoreline just north of the Perch Inn and this was enough to tempt me to walk up along the river bank to have a closer look. From here I found a nice flock of four RUFF and a single SNIPE in amongst the lapwings on the tiny grass island. A scan of the north shore up towards Wolvercote revealed four distant BLACK-TAILED GODWITS and plenty more lapwings - in fact I reckon there were at least 100 of the latter dotted around the Meadow. In amongst the ducks in the middle of the lake there were 12 PINTAIL and roughly half a dozen gadwall. Over the next few days as the floods recede further the west shore grass island should increase in size and more of the birds should congregate there. I always enjoy it when this happens as one gets excellent close-up views from across the river.

Time for me to wheel out the old joke again about liking a nice bit of Ruff

Thursday 29th November

There are still plenty of floods around on the Meadow - this is taken from the roadside at Wolvercote so you can see that it's reached pretty much all the way up to the top. It's rather hard to bird at the moment as the shoreline is right up in Wolvercote and is spread out a lot. The ducks seem to be loitering out in the middle from what I could make out. All in all, not much to report at present.

Addendum

Just a couple of snippets to add: Steve Goddard had three LESSER REDPOLLS in his garden in Wolvercote and Alex Martin reported 12 drake PINTAIL on the floods.

Monday 26th November: Jack Snipe

I decided to go for a midday run around the patch today, well at least those bits of the patch that I could still reach given the extensive flooding. The main flood waters now extend well beyond the north end of Burgess Field NR to within a reasonably short distance of Wolvercote and most of the ducks, waders and plovers are right up near the shoreline. On the "lake" itself I spotted three PINTAIL (two drakes and a duck) and along the shoreline of one of the grass "islands" the two REDSHANK were still about together with the usual lapwings and a relatively small number of golden plover. 

In Burgess Field NR there were loads of Fieldfare and Redwing about everywhere in the hedges. However, the highlight of the day was flushing a JACK SNIPE which gave nice views as it flew away and which is yet another patch year tick.

Sunday 25th November: Waxwing

What with the rain and family commitments, I haven't been out to the patch much this weekend though on Sunday afternoon Luke (my 6 year old son) and I did managed a brief walk when we went to check out the floods. He needed some fresh air and I wanted to see how extensive the floods were now and also to take a note of where the gulls were roosting. The water is still going all the way up to the North end of Burgess Field NR with no grass between the river and the usual flood area. The gulls were roosting out in the middle, best viewed from the southern Burgess Field gate. Without my scope the only birds of note that I could spot were four roosting GOOSANDER (one drake and three red-heads). 

Earlier in the day Tom Evans managed to find another WAXWING, reporting a single bird just south of the Trap Ground allotments. I'm putting some apple halves out in strategic locations in my garden to see if I can tempt one of the masked berry bandits to linger.

This photo was actually taken in Marston on Saturday where a

 flock of nearly thirty birds were hanging around for a while.

Friday 23rd November: Marsh Tit

Not much to report since Wednesday - yesterday it was too windy for me to bother venturing out onto the Meadow. Today by contrast was a gorgeous sunny and calm day so with poor prospects for the evening gull roost I thought that I would instead go for a run around the patch. In the sunshine there was plenty of bird activity - no doubt they're all catching up on feeding after the rain yesterday. The Trap Grounds grounds were very flooded but I managed to spot a Treecreeper, a Reed Bunting and a Kingfisher whilst I was there. The Meadow was in full lake-mode with not even a strip of grass between the river and the flood water. This meant that all the birds were miles away along the North Shore up at the Wolvercote end so I've no idea what was about. In the hawthorns between the boat yard and the Perch there were a huge number of winter thrushes - mostly Redwings with some Fieldfares and Blackbirds. There must have been at least 70 but one had no idea how many there were until they all flew off when a helicopter flew over. Along the swollen Castle Mill Stream I managed to hear and then see a MARSH TIT briefly as it worked its way rapidly through the trees along the bank. This is a personal patch life tick though it's not a year tick as one was seen a month or two back by someone else.

Water as far as the eye can see today - taken from the 

west bank between the boat yard and the Perch

Wednesday 21st November

Afterall the gulling excitement of recent days, the weather today put paid to it all. Despite being miserably grey and drizzly for most of the day, at around 3pm it miraculously stopped raining and the sun even came out - which is a Bad Thing on the gulling front. When I went down to the Meadow I found the river and floods both rather swollen and precious few gulls around. The ones that were there were floating out in the middle and they kept taking off and heading over the hill to Farmoor so I soon gave up on the whole roost. There was the rather sad sight of a herring gull floating in the water, barely alive. It was on it's last legs and hardly had the strength to hold it's head out of the water. On a happier note, the sunny conditions meant that I was able to check out the wader situation properly and I'm pleased to report that the two REDSHANK and 6 DUNLIN are still around. I even counted the lapwings today (69) though the golden plover spent the whole time in the air today (~500). Plenty of winter ducks about including a long drake PINTAIL. Quite a few fieldfares were "chukking" away as they flew over. Finally, Tom Evans heard a WATER RAIL in the Trap Grounds this morning - it's nice to know that they're back again.

Sparrowhawk (c) Pete Styles

Tuesday 20th November: Another Caspian Gull

Today was rather drizzly and very overcast - in other words a good gull day so despite the strong wind I was out there again grilling the roost and once again there were plenty of birds to look through. To my amazement I managed to turn up a another CASPIAN GULL, definitely a different individual from the other two as can be seen from the markings on it's bill. It obliged me with a nice wing flap without too long a wait and showed itself to be a nice "Pontic Gull". There were also the usual handful of YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS and I even had a very dark-mantled (one shade off a Lesser Black-backed) and strongly head-streaked bird which had me thinking of Azorean Yellow-legged though by this time it was so dark that you can't really make anything out on the video footage that I took. The Meadow really is on top gulling form at present. 

Apart form gulls it was almost too gloomy to make out much though the DUNLIN are certainly still around associating with the still-huge golden plover flock and there were noticeably more lapwing about this evening as well.

Digiscoped videograbs taken in very blustery conditions...

...and for hardcore gulling fans some dodgy thigh-rubbingly good video. 
I had to remove the audio as the wind noise was far too loud

Sunday 18th November: Waxwings!

There are a few snippets of news from the last couple of days. Firstly, yesterday the CASPIAN GULL was on show in the roost again along with at least 3 adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS once again. Unfortunately for some unknown reason the majority of the roost was spooked suddenly at one point and headed off to Farmoor instead. Despite losing so many birds, it's always a stunning sight when the whole gull roost takes off en masse, creating an amazing "snow storm" effect. We're getting a wonderfully huge roost on the Meadow at present and the birds are much closer than you'll ever get at somewhere like Farmoor so people who enjoy sifting through a gull flock (I know it's not to everyone's taste) might well like to consider a visit down to the Meadow whilst it's on such good form.

The Caspian Gull (c) Badger

I've heard back from Ian Lewington about this latest Caspian and he agrees with me that it's a different bird from last week's one. The latter had the classic underwing of a "Pontic" gull, i.e. a western Caspian Gull, whereas this latest one has a lot more black on the primary undersides which indicates that it's an eastern bird. If it lingers I'll try to get a decent underwing shot so that this can be checked out in more detail.

There's been a pick-up in activity on the wader front. Today Sydney Penner reported 15 RUFF, 1 REDSHANK and 7 DUNLIN on the floods though apparently some dogs were allowed to run rampage over the floods which probably resulted in everything being flushed.

The highlight of the day was a report of 4 WAXWINGS found by Tom Evans in a tree in Bainton Road briefly before they flew off. Normally, Oxfordshire doesn't manage to get these gorgeous birds until right at the end of the season so to have some sightings so early is a real bonus - it looks like being another good Waxwing year. I really hope that I manage to get some in my garden again like I did a couple of years ago. Anyway, Bainton Road is certainly within the Port Meadow catchment area so that's another year tick bringing up the total to a more respectable 130.

Garden Waxwing in February 2011

Friday 16th November: Caspian Gull again

It's been a rather quiet week on the Meadow. After the excitement of the Caspian Gull last week there'd been no sign of it for most of the week. On the wader front the two REDSHANK and handful of DUNLIN have been around as well as the usual ducks and plovers but there'd not been anything particularly noteworthy.

Tonight when I went to visit the Meadow for the usual gull roost it was rather foggy and very atmospheric. The light was so poor and the gull roost was so huge that I hardly had time to scan through them all even once before it was too dark to see properly. In amongst the throng I soon managed to find the (or another - see below) adult CASPIAN GULL gull as well as three adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS.

A digiscoped videograb of the star bird...
Note the "full nappy" look that is often characteristic of this species

...and for really hard-core gull fans here's nearly five minutes of 

uninterrupted Caspian Gull preening action

I am wondering whether this might be a different bird from last week's as it seems to me that it has more black under the outermost (P10) primary than the previous bird. I'm awaiting the export opinion of Ian Lewington on this.

Monday 12th November: Brambling

I paid my usual end of day visit to the Meadow today but the roost was rather small and there was no sign of the Caspian Gull though several common gulls and couple of smart adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS were some consolation. It was so gloomy that that couldn't really check out the waders though I did manage to spot at least one DUNLIN in amongst the golden plover flock.

Top news of the day was a sighting by Steve Goddard of three BRAMBLING (patch year tick) in his garden in Wolvercote. Apparently they spent the day there so let's hope that they linger and bring some friends who might want to come and visit my garden too!