Autumn underway!

Just into August now and I'm now regularly visiting Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury, both on my lunch breaks and sometimes on my way home in the hope of finding something good. In migration terms, autumn appears to be well under way.

Both Grimsbury and close by has had some pretty decent stuff over the past couple of weeks or so too. Best bird has been a lovely Wood Sandpiper (poor photo below!), found by Mike Pollard on the flood elevation pit just along the canal from Grimsbury. The first one I've seen for sometime and thankfully it hung around long enough for me to see it on 29/07, all be it distantly!

Other oddities I've seen have included a nice juvenile Redstart (found by Colin Wilkinson) on 27/07, a Ring-Necked Parakeet (plastic as anything but a site tick for me all the same!), a fly-over Little Egret and an adult Yellow-Legged Gull (07/08).

Most frequent migrants moving through have been both Common Sandpipers & Common Terns, which have been around on and off for some time in varying numbers. Currently, there's a family party of Common Terns about. I've seen only 1 parent with 2 juveniles, however the other parent is probably in the area.

Other than the Common Sands, waders have been fairly thin on the ground. Best so far has been a Dunlin (28/07) and an Oystercatcher. With passage only in it's infancy though, there's plenty of time for other things to turn up!