Summer birding

As May, turns to June, spring migration comes to an end and birding interest in our part of the world at least, slows down somewhat!

But that's not to say June doesn't still throw up the odd surprise. It is also probably the best month to encounter a singing Quail. Despite my efforts every year, I've thus far failed to find my own one locally, however luckily for me, a singing Quail was discovered some 10 minutes from my work in Bicester, near Marsh Gibbon (Bucks). A short wait on 14/06 after work paid dividens, with several bursts of song in the lovely meadows, adjacent to the road. Been a good number of years since my last so a worthy diversion!

A lot of my focus has been at Ardley ERF lagoon near Bicester, roughly 15 mins from home. Despite the wet spring we've had, the lagoon water levels for some unknown reason have remained consistently low and crying out for some waders - just a shame it has conincided with the period slap bang between spring and autumn!

Still, the site has provided some interest and as autumn passage gets underway, who knows what may turn up!

Not a wader, but probably the star bird was the unseasonal one-off of a Short-eared Owl on the evening of 26/06. A new bird here for all the regulars, but not the time of year we expected!

Pleasingly, a few waders have dribbled through and hopefully they're a pre-cursor to more as autumn progresses. As well as up to nearly 30 Lapwing, adults of both Greenshank and Redshank have appeared as well as a couple of the expected Green Sandpipers and 2-3 Little Ringed Plover.

Other notables have included a moulting drake Red-Crested Pochard, a one-off Corn Bunting, a Hobby and a good breeding record of Gadwall too! All in all a very good string of records for June!

The weather has been cool, cloudy or wet during what is the best period locally for butterflies - typical! So all a bit disappointing with no real opportunities to look for Purple Emperors during their peak and equally very little chance to search for Dark-Green Fritillaries too. At least I've managed to enjoy the dependable Marbled Whites, in decent numbers, if not quite the heights of 2023.

It seems to have been a strong year for orchids, particularly Bee & Pyramidal. Many road verges were alive with them and a relatively small area at Ardley ERF had at least 80 Bee spikes.