Having stayed overnight on Friday (07/09) with some of Em's family near Oxford, I gave Farmoor a visit first thing Saturday morning.
It was gloomy and drizzly and so promised much! A walk along the causeway and the full perimeter of F2 produced 100s of House Martins, enticing a couple of hunting Hobby. The juvenile Black Tern that had been about for a few days, was right out on a buoy in the middle of F2. Common Sand & Dunlin were seen briefly, while a close in Red Crested Pochard was nice.
More interest came with a very approachable juvenile Great Black Backed Gull. It was rung, (JJ808) and appears to be from a scheme in southern Norway. I've e-mailed them and await a response.
The highlight though was a beaut of a classic juvenile Caspian Gull, that I initially ID'ed as a possible from the causeway, sat out on a buoy, but confirmed once closer, towards the southern end of F2 (phone-scoped pics below). It showed well together with several Yellow-Legged Gulls of varying ages.
Later on, having gone home and sorted out a few things, I decided to pop out again for a few hours, for bit of a tour of South Northants sites. I started at Daventry Country Park where there were lots of birds about. Scoping from the dam brought a Garganey, 7 Green Sand, 1 Pintail, 3 YLG and a Snipe, together with lots of Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall and gulls.
Nearby Borough Hill was relatively birdless, however 4 Whinchat close to the BBC compound, were cool!
On the way home, a couple of Yellow-Legged Gulls were the only things of note at Bodington Res, while there were at least 2 more amongst a large numbers of gulls following the plough close to Brackley.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Last of the summer migrants
As we moved through September and into October, summer visitors slowly thinned out and autumn began to take grip. The sound of Redwings seep...
-
For a while, there were plans for a 2024 overseas birding trip in late May, with Estonia mooted as a possibility. However, with the brillian...
-
Another interesting year's local birding with a grand total of 146, actually equalling the 2022 total and again, agonisingly short of 15...
-
Back from a very sunny, family holiday in Tenerife, 17/03 - 22/03. If time permitted, I was keen to get round to see as many of the endemc b...
No comments:
Post a Comment