For much of the early autumn period, the main draw was the continued low water levels and mud of the ERF lagoon at Ardley, near-ish to Bicester.
There were periods of quiet, but in the end, a decent run of species with 13 species of wader in total, before we lost the mud to the rain! The standout, without doubt were the 2 juvenile Little Stints found by Gareth Casburn on the evening of 02/09. A long-awaited local tick for me, they showed really nicely and ended up staying for a couple of days. Gareth and I talked quite a lot about getting one, so super chuffed that came to fruition!
The other headline bird was a crisp and characterful juvenile Wood Sandpiper that I found hanging out with the Green Sands on the evening of 10/08. My first at Ardley that didn't hand around too long and departed overnight.
Two islandica Black-Tailed Godwits were a real treat, found during a brief visit during my paternity leave! I find Black-Tailed Godwits surprisingly hard to come by in this area, so a fairly notable sighting. A juvenile Ruff was also a good year tick, first seen on and lingered for a few days. A tiny bird, similar in size to the Green Sands, so presumably a female.
Ringed Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Snipe and Dunlin all made appearances, while more regular visitors were up to 12 Green Sandpipers, up to c100 Lapwing and sporadic appearances from the odd Common Sandpiper.
Elsewhere, the ocassional visit to Grimsbury Reservoir, produced the odd bit of interest including a drake Pochard (barely annual at the res) hanging out with the local Mallards for a while, finally my first local Whinchats of the year on 02/09 and the the odd Yellow-Legged Gull.
My Brackley garden delivered a few nice surprises, including 2 flyover Tree Pipits on 17/08, a Yellow-Legged Gull and 2 early returning Common Gulls, regular Hobby sightings and a house-first Red Underwing Moth!
Others pictures from the time period...
