Purple patch

Birding locally has suddenly produced some what of a purple patch, with 4 local year ticks in 6 days. For this end of the year, that is verging on exceptional!

It all began on Sunday 16/11, on the back of a bit of a northerly, arctic blast and heavy rain. This certainly had displaced a few birds inland over the weekend and so I was out early at Grimsbury Res to see if anything was happening. This soon paid off as I picked out a lovely adult Little Gull fairly high overhead from west to east. A few other bits and prices moved through, (including a distant flock of seemingly small geese) as well as a stredy flow of gulls, again heading east. As I departed, the gull movement brought in another adult Little Gull that had a quick cruise about the res, before heading on. They are always tricky to see locally so two in a couple of hours was a bit of a treat to see! 

Later that day, I took a late afternoon walk out along the canal, between Clifton and Aynho, with my little boy. The heavy rain from the last couple of days had, unsurprisngly flooded the valley, as is commonplace during the winter months. After a bit of a wander, we paused for a short while and I noticed a distinctive dark shape sat out on the flood - a 1w Dark-Bellied Brent Goose! Unfortunately, in no time at all, rather unusually, a lady appeared walking across the field and the bird flushed heading off low north. This was part of a significant movement of displaced DBBs into the south east and midlands on the back of the weather. My second in the mid-Cherwell, after another 1w back in 2022.

It didn't end there and on Thursday 20/11, an adult Great Northern Diver was reported from Foxcote Reservoir, Buckingham. Any diver in my area is an event and this was a must see. I teed up an early start on Friday (21/11) morning, as part of a diversion to work in Bicester! On a freezing, crisp morning a made it to the hide and after a bit of a scan, was pleased to find it sat in the middle of the reservoir. I took it in for a while, noting the handful of white flecs remaining in the matle, the remanants of the bird's breeding plumage. I was pleasantly surprised to actually hear it call a couple of times too! I returned for a short while on Sunday 23/11 and got to enjoy it in much better light and slightly less brutally cold conditions - was definitely worth another look! Juvenile/1st winters are by far the most frequent age GNDs inland and I think this one was only my second inland adult GND so a very good record indeed!

Finally, on Saturday 22/11, I took a local drive for my little daughter's morning nap. I decided to swing by the mid Cherwell to see if any floods were still about. As it was, by the road at least, they had largely receded, although these fields were full of geese. I quietly parked up, had a scan and was surprised to quickly come across a lovely, dinky Pink-Footed Goose hanging out with a few Greylags. Pinkfeet in this area are incredibly scarce, so was a decent find and just my second locally in 13 or so years! The only other also being in the Mid-Cherwell! A couple of Egyptian Geese were also closeby.

After what's been a pretty drab local birding year overall, it's been very refreshing to enjoy a good run of local scarcities! The local yearlist is now up to 145 - I still very much doubt I'll reach the 150 mark and would need a bit more jammy luck, but you never know!