Another Banbury Wood Warbler

For a second year in succession, a Wood Warbler was discovered in Spiceball Park Banbury. Again, found by Colin Wilkinson, early on the morning of Wednesday 26/04, this one hung around a damn sight longer than both last year's bird and my Grimsbury Reservoir one too. Residing around the same small copse as last year this is surely (?) the same bird as last year, however stranger things have happened!

I was chuffed to see the bird, at lunchtime, showing fantastically well and luckily, singing regularly! I forgot my camera however did manage a decent recording with my phone!: http://www.xeno-canto.org/366524

I had another go for it the next morning (Thursday 27/04) and was pleasantly surprised to find it still there and this time, I had brought my camera! Never an easy bird to photograph, especially with a bridge camera, however I did muster a couple of half decent shots. What a fantastic little gem of a phyllosc these birds are!

That evening, I was in no rush to get home an so after having a quick look at Grimsbury (notching my first Swift of the year), I drove the shortish distance over to Boddington Reservoir for a look, with gloomy skies offering the promise of terns & hirundines.

There were plenty of all three hirundine species, perhaps as many as 300, however no red rumpers, despite endless scanning! The highlight of the evening, was watching 5 Yellow Wagtail around the dam. With a little bit of field craft and patience, I was able to get some lovely views in the fading light.  

Other notable birds seen, included 3-4 Common Sandpiper and singing Garden Warbler & Lesser Whitethroat.No terns made an appearance unfortunately, despite a couple of 100+ Arctic flocks in north Northants. It seemed numbers were heading through a little further east. 

Hangover cure

We spent the much of last weekend at our friends' wedding in the Chilterns. Following our return home on Sunday (23/04) afternoon, I popped out for an enjoyable few hours to get some fresh air to aid the hangover!

With the sun out, I headed a short way down the road to Ardley Quarry, just into Oxfordshire, to look for butterflies. The main highlight was my first 3-4 Grizzled Skippers of the year, while other butterflies seen included a Holly Blue, a Large White, a Brimstone & several Orange Tips. No hoped for Green Hairstreak as yet though.

The other main highlight was a very confiding Common Lizard basking on a log pile, affording some lovely views.

I had been mulling over driving over to Farmoor Reservoir afterwards, for another attempt at the Bonaparte's Gull. With it seemingly now reliably in situ and with Dan Watson heading over there too that afternoon, together with Tim Marlow, I decided to give it a go.

I met up with Dan & Tim around the SW side of F2 and was quickly onto the petite Bonaparte's Gull bobbing around not too far offshore. Over the next hour or so, the bird showed fantastically well, flying within a few feet from us or sat on the water closeby. These were dramatically better views than my only other Bony's, at Dawlish Warren a few years ago, bobbing distantly out at sea!

Occasionally it would pluck a stickleback from the water and when any Black Headed Gull came near it would crouch low down in the water and would call, letting out a weird sort of squeaky grunt! 

Other birds while there, included a singing Cuckoo, my first of the year, a fly-through Ringed Plover, c5 Common Sandpiper & double-figure Common Terns.

Easter Weekend

The Easter weekend was quite late this year, however hopes that this would coincide with some migrant-rich weather was short lived, with continued W / NW winds. I did however persevere and managed to get out here & there locally, to see what I could find.

I gave Borough Hill another go, early on the morning of Saturday 15/04 on a bright, breezy day. It was pretty hard work finding birds, however in the end, I was pretty pleased to find a gorgeous male Redstart, together with another calling close by down on the southern slopes. Three Wheatears were also welcome, bombing around the SE corner of the hill.

The next day (Sunday 16/04), Em & I popped out for a walk during the afternoon, to see the local Bluebells. They didn't disappoint, despite the weather being a little on the gloomy side. On the walk up, a Tree Pipit headed over north, calling several times. A decent little find.

The number of spring flowers as a whole, was impressive and it was cool to find both roosting Orange Tip & Green-Veined White too.

The next day (Monday 17/04), I had a large chunk of the day to myself. I needed to get over to Northampton at some point and so I decided to start my day early at Pitsford Reservoir, with the possibility of bumping into an Osprey or something half decent. As it turned out, there was very little to find despite the gloomy conditions. The best were a very distant Green Sandpiper, a flyby Yellow-Legged Gull, 1-2 Common Tern & good numbers of all three Hirundines over the Scaldwell bay.

Later on in the day, after returning home to Brackley for lunch, I headed out again, this time into Oxfordshire. Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury produced very little, with just a couple each of Common Sandpiper & LRP. I then decided to try Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford, always a decent migrant hot spot. I was also eyeing up the possibility of seeing the 1st-summer Bonaparte's Gull that had been around on and off for over a week.

As it turned out, I failed in locating the 'Bony's' and furthermore, my scope managed to topple over, damaging the eyepiece...bugger! Thankfully, it should be fairly fixable.

Best birds here included at least 4 lovely Yellow Wagtail close to the waterworks, several White Wagtail, 4 drake Red Crested Pochard, a late female Goosander, 4 Common Sandpipers & c10 Common Tern.

The Little Ringed Plover

Little Ringed Plovers are a real favourite of mine and it is a genuine highlight of every spring, to watch their mesmeric display flights as they zig-zag their way across local water bodies, with their calls echoing all around.

This is very much in full swing at Grimsbury Reservoir, Banbury with a total of 4 birds present, including two very lively males, eager to impress the ladies!

This evening, I was lucky enough to gain some particularly brilliant views of one of the males, in lovely evening light. This inspired me to sing the praises of this charismatic little wader!

Red Necked Grebes

Last weekend was a right old scorcher, with cloudless skies, bright sunshine and temperatures in excess of 20 degrees! The winds did have more of a southerly flavour to them, however with such clear skies, grounded migrants were a little harder to come by.

I had plans on Saturday (08/04) but did pop into Bucknell Wood for a quick look for butterflies mid afternoon. It was cool to see Orange Tips had increased a lot since the previous weekend with numbers very much in double figures. I also came across quite a few smart looking Peacocks & several Comma too, hammering anything passing by!

Early Sunday morning, (09/04) I headed over to Daventry Reservoir to try and see the pair of Red Necked Grebe discovered at the end of the week. Pleasingly, both birds were still present and I spent quite a bit of time watching them cruising about and calling a bit too, in the company of a decent gathering of Northants birding folk!

While watching the grebes, we were all dead chuffed to see a Sandwich Tern drop in, together with a single Common Tern. This is only my second ever Northants 'Sarnie' and a great surprise. This was part of quite a significant movement of Sandwich Tern through the country that morning, including a county record of 20 birds at Clifford Hill GP!

I couldn't find the Black Necked Grebe that had been around for a while. The White Fronted Goose was still there though and certainly wasn't shy, mingling with the local wildfowl just off jetty by the visitor centre, competing for bread! Two LRP were flying around too and I also spotted my first Speckled Wood in the car park. What an excellent visit!

  

Return of the Rouzel

While the winds weren't particularly favourable for migrants over the weekend (01/04 & 02/04), the weather was pretty nice, allowing for further butterfly sightings and the odd good bird thrown in too!

I started off very early on Saturday morning with Gareth, for a good blast of patching at Grimsbury Res and the Upper Cherwell Valley. The initial promise of forecast rain never really materialised. Highlights were thin on the ground, however we did get our first House Martin of the year, together with a couple of Swallows, around 15 Sand Martin and at least 4 singing Blackcaps.

Later on in the day, Em and I took a walk in Bucknell Wood, near SIlverstone. This ended up producing a pretty decent selection of butterflies. The definite highlight was my earliest yet Orange Tip with a male gliding around and even during a spell of cloud, happy to wander onto my hand. So cool, surely one of the best UK butterflies.

Also around were at least three each of Comma & Peacock, as well as a lone Brimstone nectaring on a Cuckoo flower. Several Lesser Redpoll and Siskin were still about too.

The next day, Sunday 02/04, I was again out early doors, to have a look around Borough Hill, Daventry for passerines. The winds were far from ideal for migration but anytime in early April is worth a go here to be honest. As it turned out, it was pretty dead with not a single Wheatear, just a flyover Redpoll and a couple of Redwings, as well as the lovely cacophony of the local Skylarks. Furthermore, a male Ring Ouzel was then found on the adjacent Newnham Hill, which I had planned to have a look at next anyways. Beaten to it!

A short while later, I drove to where I assumed the bird was found, an area of steep grassy slopes that held up to 7 Ring Ouzel a couple of years ago. There was no one else about but I decided to have a bit of a scan anyway. There was initially no sign, however suddenly a male Ring Ouzel flew from over my left shoulder and landed a little way down the slope joining a male Blackbird. Excellent! It fed there for a bit before unfortunately it was flushed by the farmer walking his dog. The bird was rather elusive thereafter and so I left a little while later having enjoyed some good views.

I had another look at Bucknell Wood again on my way home, with the hope of more butterflies, however it was largely cloudy while I was there. I did though come across a nice surprise in the shape of a pair of vocal Crossbill, feeding in the pines

It's great to see the forest slowly coming to life again.There was also an increasingly impressive array of colour beginning to appear, with blossom everywhere and a decent array of spring flowers on show.