Anyways, for the past week or so I've mainly done a bit of mooching around locally as well as the usual bit of Grimsbury patching. With winter dwindling there's been a couple of sites I've been meaning to try so on Thursday (17/03) I went looking for owls after work around some promising looking habitat near to Weston. Nice views of a Barn Owl here straight away, as well as a calling Tawny Owl, my first of the year. The sunset here was remarkable; showing off some seriously vivid colours.
Sunday morning (20/03), I headed over to Grimsbury Reservoir for a bit of an early morning circuit. The Oystercatcher present for around a week or so, flew in, a drake Goosander hung about & there were at least 3 Chiffchaffs about. But stars of the show were a pair of Egyptian Geese that flew purposefully over south. A patch first for me and an apparent first for Grimsbury too!!
On the way back home I popped into a farmland site close to Brackley which I'd been keen to check out for finches & buntings. Here, I was chuffed to find a handful of Tree Sparrows amongst approximately 40 handsome Yellowhammers.
After going out for breakfast with Em & friends near Kidlington, I popped over to Otmoor for a bit of a look around. The recent pair of Garganeys appeared to have moved on and in fact, I didn't see anything too spectacular. A male Brambling at the feeding station was however very enjoyable, while other notable birds included a couple of Ruff and a few Dunlin with still good numbers of nervous Golden Plovers. One or two Curlew could be heard, the place was full of courting Redshank and 1-2 Marsh Harriers were to be seen crusing around the reserve.
I finished the day at the Boddington Reservoir for the gull roost with Dan & Gareth. Surprisingly, we failed to pick out a Med Gull or, in fact anything really of note. Best birds here included views of a Willow Tit by Byfield Pool, at least 10 Goosander late in the day and at least 7 Shoveler on the eastern side of the reservoir.
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