On Sunday 25/11, I spent a large part of the day going around some sites between Brackley & Banbury, before heading on towards Boddington Res, Daventry Res & Borough Hill.
I started the day at Thenford Church, near Brackley in a hopeful attempt to find Hawfinches. Not surprisingly, I drew a blank. Last winter was certainly exceptional for Hawfinch, however regardless, Thenford still looks very favourable for them. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for them there for the remainder of the winter.
For the first time in ages, the Middleton Cheney / Chacombe area, had drawn in some decent numbers of gulls, feeding on cattle feed and manure. One such area just SW of Middleton Cheney held at least 3 Yellow-Legged Gulls, all adults and a lovely distinctive adult Caspian Gull. The adjacent hedge also sprung another surprise, with c20 Tree Sparrow also coming down to the field to feed.
The water levels continued to be very low at Boddington Res, but was also very quiet on the bird front. Daventry Res painted a similar picture. There were though plenty of birds about, however the only thing of note was a vocal Green Sandpiper.
On then to the adjacent Borough Hill, in search of the recently reported Short Eared Owl. It was about 14:30pm and was very gloomy, so there was a reasonable chance it would appear. I walked through the centre of the hill and spent a good 40 minutes scanning and searching, right up to the far north end of the hill. I wanted to get back to Banbury, to Grimbo for the gull roost, so I reluctantly began walking back to the car, taking a slightly different route.
Thirty seconds later, and BANG the Short Eared Owl flew up out of the long grass, no more than 4 foot in front of me!! After a bit of fly about, it settled in the dead branches of a nearby bit of scrub and then went on to quarter the hill for a good 20 minutes. Big success, although felt a little bad for accidentally waking him up!
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