2025

All in all, 2025 was probably not one of my most vintage birding years, with a warm dry spring in particular, producing very little of interest locally. However, that isn't to say there weren't some really nice wildlife encounters and memorable birds. 

The first couple of months of 2025, produced probably the biggest surprise of the year, with the occurence of not one, but TWO Green-Winged Teals in the local area - at the same time! Certainly the more showy of the two, was a drake at Ardley Quarry that lingered for quite sometime, staying very faithful to the small pool adjacent to the quarry. The other was far more tricky and elusive, on the extensive Mid-Cherwell floods, just into Oxon. I did though pleasingly manage to see it the once on 15/02. A shame then, that part-way through the year, GWT is no longer deemed a full species and has now left my local list, no sooner had it joined! But all the same, a treat to see locally whatever their status!  

Other good early year additions included a couple of adult Med Gulls in the Boddington Res gull roost, Great White Egret, Ruff and Dunlin in the Mid Cherwell valley and Egyptian Goose at Grimsbury Res.

Highlights of a largely unproductive spring included finding both a pair of Garganey and a surprise Black Redstart at Bicester Wetland Reserve, both great birds for the site. Other than that, Foxcote Res produced Black Tern, Marsh Harrier and Barnacle Goose while plenty of effort at Ardley Quarry delivered a Sanderling and a good run of Ringed Plovers, however was disapointingly unproductive, despite plenty of effort and sutable looking wader habitat! Firecrest, Grasshopper Warbler, Hobby, Cuckoo and Spotted Flycatcher were all also encountered, though not in any great number.

Early autumn was a frustrating afair, as despite some excellent wader habitat on offer due to the very dry summer months, the waders just did not appear!

Still, I did add juvenile Little Stint, Ruff and Greenshank at Boddington Res and an incredible count of 26 Little Ringed Plovers at Ardley Quarry on 05/07.

Other things of note included a random Firecrest at Hinton Airfield, a couple of juv Med Gulls and Mandarin at Grimsbury, Caspian Gulls both there and at Ardley, which also hosted Whinchat and Oystercatcher, Black-Tailed Godwit and Redshank at Bicester Wetland Reserve, Cattle Egrets at Lower Heyford, Crossbills in Bucknell Wood and Red-Crested Pochard at Foxcote Res.

 

Later autumn and winter saw local birding pick up nicely with a great run of local scarcities. These included an adult Great Northern Diver and 1w drake Scaup at Foxcote Res, Pink-Footed, White-Fronted and Dark-bellied Brent Geese in the Mid-Cherwell, Little Gull and Rock Pipit and Grimsbury Res and Bittern and Common Scoter at Calvert Jubilee Lake, as well as Merlin, Great Black-Backed Gull and Brambling all new for the year too. I also dipped Red-Breasted Merganser at Boddington Res and Whooper Swan / Tundra Bean Goose at Calvert Jubilee Lake.

Both the Bittern and Scaup were long overdue local area firsts for me, while the Pinkfoot very luckily made an appearance at Grimsbury Res on 29/11, making it my 156th species for the site and my sole patch tick of the year!

My local yearlist finished again on 148 (!) - 149 with Green-winged Teal! Notable misses included Redstart, Little Owl, Arctic Tern and Wood Sand, all of which I usually catch up with. Redstart in particular was hard to believe, but it was a generally quiet year for these locally. 

Three county ticks was a good return from 2025. All three were American species, with the standout highlight for me being the lovely, elegant juvenile American Golden Plover at Clifford Hill GP. It initially gave me the runaround, before soon thankfully reappearing and showed nicely. Finally my UK bogeybird put to bed and in my home county too!

A drake Lesser Scaup at Ditchford GPs at the back end of October, assumed to be the same seen at Stanford Res earlier in the autumn was a Northants mega! I treated myself to on my birthday, while the year was crowned off nicely with the drake American Wigeon at Titchmarsh - the first for 21 years! Now time for a county tick far closer to home please!

Away from from my local area, the year began with a bit of a bonkers twitch with Dan W and Johnny P to the North East, with the lure of Ross' Gull, Grey-Headed Lapwing and White-Billed Diver! As it turned out it was a total dip (!!!) on all three fronts, as a severe cold snap moved them all from situ. It was though a really good laugh and to be fair, despite the dips, we came away with Green-Winged Teal, Ring-Necked Duck, Long-Tailed Duck, Smew, Scaup, Hen Harrier, Velvet Scoter, Black-Throated Diver, Whooper Swans, Purple Sand and Bottlenose Dolphins among others! So still some good birding to be had.

Elsewhere, a family day out in Worcestershire, in May gave me the chance to shoehorn in a walk in the Wyre Forest, enjoying some wonderful views of Pied Flys, as well as hearing Redstart and Tree Pipits. Such a magical place! We also had late August family holiday in north Norfolk, where birding was limited to a brief bit of gulling off Cromer seafront, enjoying lovely views of a 1w Caspian Gull and a casual wander at Titchwell. 

The other, more birdy trip away was in mid October for the usual 'Magic week' trip, with Dan W, Gareth B, Kieran N & Johnny P. We're always at the mercy of the winds / weather to dictate what we see and while they weren't perfect, we enjoyed some lovely birding at Snettisham and a few other locations across the weekend. Highlights included the long-staying Snett Short-Toed Lark (a UK lifer for me), as well as a surprise Red-Necked Phalarope, amazing numbers of waders, Lesser Yellowlegs, several Glossy Ibis, Whooper Swan, Curlew Sandpiper etc etc.

A much better year for butterflies with such prolonged sunny spells and lack of rain. My usual pilgrimages to local sites for Black Hairstreak, Purple Emperor and Wood White etc. The October Norfolk trip also saw my first Wall Browns for years which was cool!  

2025 was a really enjoyable year in the garden, with a sucession of interesting visitors, over the hot, dry summer months in particular. Having been in our house since 2012, anything new here is now quite notable, so x1 new bird species, x2 new butterfly and x2 new dragonfly / Damselfly species were pretty decent!

Despite the surrounding area holding many seemingly thriving populations of Marbled Whites, it had still eluded the garden list. But finally 2025 saw our first, with a fairly brief encounter as one circled the garden a couple of times before heading off. Brown Argus too, was a species I hoped at some point would visit, with Common Blues being annual, spordic visitors. Luckily one appeared on some lavendar and hung around for about a 2 minutes before being flushed by a bee! The garden list now stands at an impressive 24 species, with possibly Large Skipper, Small Heath or maybe Purple Hairstreak the only potential new additions.

A single juvenile Whitethroat tagging along with a titflock on 13/08 was a good new addition to the garden list now standing at 87 (8 heard only).  

Beautiful Demoseille and Broad-Bodied Chasers were new, while we had ocassional visits from a Southern Hawker and incresed visits from Common Blue Damselflies too.

The flying ants attracted 1-2 Hobby, as well a large number of gulls to the playing field during mid-August, allowing some mad views of a Yellow-Legged Gull peering over the fence, as well as interestingly x2 Dutch-ringed and x1 Spanish-ringed Lesser Black-Backed Gull. 

We were lucky enough to be visited by only our second Small Copper, as well as multiple Small & Essex Skippers, Common Blue, Painted Lady and several Hummingbird Hawkmoth sightings including one bombing around our kitchen!

Others from throughout the year...