Got to do a fair bit of birding over the weekend of the 09/04 & 10/04, producing a good mix of a few winter visitors clinging on & some spring/summer migrants thrown in for good measure too.
Saturday (09/04) didn't involve a great deal of birding, however Em & I went out for lunch in Stadhampton, SE of Oxford. This was only a short distance along the M40 from Aston Rowant & Linkey Down nature reserve. Here a handful of male Ring Ouzels had been present for the previous few days. So before lunch I went for a quick look. There were 3 birds on show pretty distantly on the far slopes, but very nice to see as they nervously scuttled around the ant hills.
The next day (10/04), Dan Watson and I spent the day hitting a few Northants & Oxon sites. We started early on at Borough Hill with the hope of conjuring some migrant passerines. It was ultimately a bit of a damp squib, with the weather probably 'too nice' and bright to bring down anything. Best bird here was a single female Wheatear.
Nearby Daventry Reservoir was super quiet, other than 5-6 male Blackcaps in the hedge by the dam. On then to Boddington Reservoir which actually was relatively productive with our first Common Tern of the year and good views of a single Jack Snipe, with around 10 Snipe.
There was little evidence that any migrants were on the move and so after a quick stop in Banbury for some food, we headed over to Farmoor Reservoir, Oxford to reward our efforts with a nice range of things to see.
The weather had changed quite quickly from the bright sunshine of earlier, to a breezy NE wind and heavy cloud. The F1 basin appeared to be the place to be and so we decided to give it a circuit. We soon got onto a few Yellow Wagtail on the eastern side by the water treatment works, however couldn't locate the reported male Channel Wagtail.
The walk round produced very little until we reached the far western shore. Here we picked up the lovely sum plum Red Necked Grebe fishing for sticklebacks.
A very short way along the path, we came across the reported Slavonian Grebe amongst a sizable group of Great Crested. The bird was sporting pretty advanced summer plumage, however was still looking a bit patchy. We gained some good views despite the increasing stiff breeze!
Walking round to the causeway, the Red Necked Grebe appeared again in the SW corner of the basin which coincided with a bit of sun. I simply sat on the causeway and enjoyed spectacular views of the bird as it continually fed super close-in for a good 15 minutes. Was flipping great to watch, coming up with a stickleback pretty much every time it came up to the surface!
One of the long-staying Great Northern Divers was also on show nearby.
We finished up having another look at the Yellow Wags by the water treatment works and hoping we might get a decent look at the Channel Wag. Low and behold it soon flew in to join another 4 Yellow Wags. Despite it being a hybrid, (between our own Flavissima and the continental flava), Channel Wags really are stunning looking birds and we enjoyed some pretty good views, despite the bird being very wary. That concluded a very decent day's birding!
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