On Saturday (17/01) I popped out for a short while over to Boddington Reservoir to see what was about and to see my first Willow Tit of 2015. Was a real nice sunny day and perfect for photos. The large, wet, reedy area at the NE end held several vocal Teal and the usual Snipe, though certainly not the c.50 I've often seen here, due, I guess, to the current higher water levels. In fact I probably only had around 5-10.
Here I managed to get ridiculously close to a Fieldfare, usually a really jumpy species. I managed to stalk it down to about 10 feet, as it just sat there chilling on a fence post. With the sun behind me, I finally managed to get some decent photos of one.
Moving onto Byfield Pool and I soon picked up the hoped for Willow Tit on call. I then watched it for some time foraging around the trees along with a couple of Treecreeper and a few Great & Blue Tits. A Water Rail then began squealing from the reed bed here, a site first for me.
I then moved onto the dam where most birds had congregated due to the sailing going on. Here a group of 9 Goosander (5 drakes) were present, along with a couple of Kingfisher.
I took a bit of a longer route home and had a look at a few places but had nothing more than a pair of Raven between Eydon & Canons Ashby and lots of Buzzards.
Yesterday, Sunday (18/01), I visited Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury to have a better look at the Sibe Chiffchaff that had been present there for a while. I had it twice last week during my lunch breaks, however wasn't able to spend too long there.
There was very little on the reservoir, however arriving at the wood, the sun came out and it was alive with birds. I soon got on to several Goldcrest and a Coal Tit. I then found at least 2 possibly 3 Collybita Chiffchaff and soon the tristis too. Managed to get nice prolonged views as it busily fed in the alders and pines.
The Tristis disappeared for a short time then flew back over my and a couple of other local birders' heads from the other side of the river, before landing in front of us and letting out an unmistakable Collybita type call. Hmmmmmm! With very pro-Tristis plumage (ie. pale, whitish underparts, grey/brown mantle & buff/brown supercilium etc.) this certainly doesn't rule it out and reading up on them a bit more, this isn't the first time this has occurred and it may well have the classic 'peep' call in its repertoire too. More interesting stuff on Siberian Chiffchaff ID can be read here: http://birdingfrontiers.com/2013/01/01/siberian-chiffchaff-and-common-chiffchaff-part-1/ & here: http://birdingfrontiers.com/2013/01/02/siberian-chiffchaff-and-common-chiffchaff-part-2/. One thing that was noticeable was how different the bird looked in different light, almost Bonelli's Warbler-like in the sun, but far more grey and white when the cloud came over.
I then heard a Willow Tit and managed to locate it on the other side of the river, feeding in willows together with several Long Tailed Tits. I then spent the next little while attempting to get better photos of the Tristis, however the light was poor and results distinctly average! The Willow Tit moved closer but the shots of this too weren't great at all ether! The photos below as good as it got.
I spent the rest of the day back in Northants, wandering along the footpaths around farmland between Weston & Canons Ashby in the stunning sunshine. Failed to locate any hoped for Little Owls in what looked like ideal habitat. I did however get brief views of a Merlin flying purposefully east and late in the day, a flock of exactly 70 Golden Plovers were flying around calling, always nice to see locally. Other than that I saw just the usual common farmland and woodland birds including a nice confiding pair of feeding Marsh Tits (below).
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