Great run of birds

A little round up of various sightings from last week, that produced a lovely range of birds. Most of which from the beloved 'Soap Dish' (aka Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury) which is absolutely on fire at the moment!

Monday 11/04 was a gloomy, cloudy old day with a lovely east / south east wind. Perfect weather for some good passage birds.

During late morning, it became clear there was a pretty hefty Little Gull passage through the country and so on my lunchbreak I headed to Grimbo with much anticipation. I was super chuffed to be rewarded with 2 cracking adult Little Gulls busily feeding over the water. Two Common Terns, a Common Sand & a female LRP made a very decent visit indeed!

The next day (Tuesday 12/04), I took a detour on my way home from work through farmland NE of Brackley. I was rewarded with a single Lapwing on territory, a pair of Grey Partridges (a very scarce bird in this area) and at least 10 Tree Sparrows at a favoured site close to Brackley.

During the week, Grimsbury produced further decent bits and bobs with a flyover Curlew on 12/04, the two Willow Tits on 14/04, as well as my first Lesser Whitethroat & Sedge Warblers (both on 13/04).

Friday 15/04 was particularly good, being a pretty minging wet and very cloudy day. Gareth & I gave Grimsbury a go early on, before work, producing our first Dunlin and Wheatear (a female) for the year here.

A circuit after work was even better with a male Redstart appearing on the west side of the reservoir. Amazingly, I initially picked it up sat on railings with Swallows out by the pontoons!

Other birds that evening included at least 8 Yellow Wags (though probably more) a male Wheatear, 3 White Wags, the Dunlin again, Common Sand and around 200 hirundines comprising all 3 common species, however not the hoped for Red-Rump, despite plenty of thorough scanning!

I spent most of Sunday (17/04) out and about, however failed to find anything too spectacular. I headed over to Boddington first thing on a beautiful clear, still morning. Was very surprised to find a Wheatear feeding in the road between Culworth & Trafford Bridge on my way there!

Boddington held a few migrants with a nice singing Lesser Whitethroat, a Yellow Wag, 5 Common Tern & a Sedge Warbler but now Arctic Terns as I'd hoped.

Following Bod, a extensive stomp around Grimsbury Res & the Upper Cherwell Valley with Gareth revealed nothing new. I did however hear my first Whitethroat of the year, as well as a Lesser Whitethroat, a Common Sand, several Yellow Wags & a fledged Robin! The visit was cut short by a rush down to nearby Spiceball park for a Wood Warbler found by Colin Wilkinson. The bird however, had vanished and we had to console ourselves with nothing more than a few Willow Warblers.

I finished my afternoon in some of the woods close to home to see how the Bluebells were coming on. They were already looking pretty spectacular, however they were probably a few days off their absolute peak.