Living the dream!

Well...I think it's fair to say it's been a rather magical few days!

It all began on Friday, with my usual early morning, pre-work circuit of Grimsbury Res. It was a pretty cloudy and chilly one too, with a fair bit of north in the wind. On the surface, there didn't appear to be a great deal about, other than a few Common Sands. There were though, quite a decent drop of hirundines, with many gathering on the barbed wire of the perimeter fence - a classic sight on patch during gloomy spring days.

They seemed to take a liking to one particular stretch towards the NW end of the reservoir. A very distant scan with my bins, flagged up one particular bird amongst the tightly huddled hirundines on the fence. Though far away, it appeared to have a bit of orange on the side of it's face. I tried my best to get a photo and zooming in on the camera, it definitely looked REALLY interesting, but it was hard to be certain. Uh ohhh!

This would usually be the point (as is classic with Grimsbury) where a dog walker would obliviously wander along and spook all the birds from the fence! Today though, thankfully, I was in luck, with barely a sole in sight. I shot off briskly past the 'halfway bench' and then paused some 25 metres along the NW edge. Was it still there? Was it still there? Another look and yes it was. I quickly snapped a photo and zoomed in - my suspicion then changed to 100% certainty - f****** hell, RED-RUMPED SWALLOW!!

Gareth and I have always thought, with the decent amount of hirundines we get through the reservoir on passage, if we were going to get ourselves a decent rare at the dish, Red-Rumped Swallow was a feasible, if unlikely possibility. But to actually find one there was beyond exciting! I couldn't believe it! 

Obviously it's no 1st for Britain but for a small, humble inland patch like Grimsbury, this was hugely MEGA, so I'm not going to lie, I was shaking a bit as I quickly left Gareth a pretty funny, excitable voicemail (which he has since played back to me!). I then got the news out to all, via twitter, text, WhatsApp etc, trying my best to negate the adrenaline shakes as best I could! It soon flew off the fence and after losing it for a short while, I picked it up again, this time flying around in front of me among the hoards of Swallows, House & Sand Martins, with a few Swifts thrown in too.

The first few people soon arrived, including Gareth and thankfully all were onto it, if not immediately, then soon after. Disappointingly I then had to go to work, but I left on an understandably, bloody big high!!

It apparently disappeared mid-morning as the cloud cleared and their food of flies went with it. There was however, every chance it was feeding up high and could reappear during the evening, with cloud and rain forecast. As it turned out, amazingly it did just that, finding it again perched up on the same bit of fence as earlier, under very dreary skies. This thankfully allowed more people to see it, once all the usual Friday work commitments were over!

Just as surprising, was that it also lingered into the next day and Sunday too, presumably due to the cold northerly wind holding up the hirundines. I popped up both mornings for another look, together with a steady stream of other admirers from near and far. Grimbo has never seen so many birders - all a bit surreal but really cool! It was great to see a few familiar faces and to meet a few new ones too.

Unsurprisingly, the Swallow was a 1st for Grimsbury Res and just the 4th record for Oxfordshire. It took me a while to realise, but it was also my first in the UK - a self-found UK lifer, on the patch. It doesn't get much better than that!

With all the excitement, a few other decent birds have gone almost unnoticed! On the Saturday, a lone Barnacle Goose appeared and hung about on and off. Almost certainly plastic but with no rings and free-flying - it's a welcome patch tick in my book!



The Whooper Swan remains in the general vicinity of the nearby Borrow Pit - it showed super well on Wednesday 01/05.









Also that evening, a Hobby gave a great show as it dropped out of the clouds hunting for hirundines. My first of the year.

Rouzel at last

I've tried pretty hard to find myself a Ring Ouzel this spring, but with no luck! So when a single bird was discovered at the now regular Rouzel stop off of Newnham Hill, near Daventry, I popped over after work for a look on Monday 29/04.





There has been quite a bit of chat about whether it was a female or a 1st-winter male, however I think consensus has settled on female. A treat to get such good, prolonged views - well worth the drive along the A361.

Tern tastic!

Having returned from a couple of days in Norfolk last week, a couple of visits back at the beloved soap dish, paid dividends!

Late on Saturday afternoon (27/04) I popped up for a look to see if the strong SW wind had dropped in anything. There was quite a good sprinkling of Arctic Terns around the country and so it was well worth a cheeky look.

I was in luck, with a beaut of an Arctic Tern cruising around, in the company of a Common Tern too. I watched them for ages - a great chance to fully appreciate the differences between what are two regularly confused species. Colin also found a Wheatear and after a while it popped up for me on the perimeter fence briefly - smart bird! A male LRP & a brief Yellow Wag, completed a very decent visit!









The next day, (Sunday 28/04) I decided I'd have a look a bit later on in the day, however this plan went out the window as mid morning, local regular Clive discovered a Sandwich Tern, a bird I've been eager to see on patch for sometime. Panic! I jumped out the shower, got ready in record time, hopped in the car and made in down to the res! Thankfully, unlike most inland Sarnies, the bird hung around and in fact stayed for the whole day, despite lots of sailing going on at the res.





It showed amazingly well, at times flying low along the near shore right in front of us, following the reservoir perimeter. It also would fly up pretty high, giving the impression it was leaving, before coming back down again. It caught a couple of fish while I was there and once the sailing had ended, sat on one of the buoys for a rest. A very memorable patch encounter!

Purple Heron & colourful Barwits

Spent a couple of days in Norfolk with Em at the end of last week, staying with friends Kieran & Leila.

Did a little bit of birding, wandering up through Burnham Overy dunes, up to Gun Hill on Thursday 25/04. A Spoonbill was happily feeding away in a nearby pool, there were a handful of Wheatear, a few Pink-Footed & Brent Geese still about and a Med Gull calling loudly overhead.



The Purple Heron failed to show itself, however when back at the car by the A149, one last scan with the scope picked it up on the edge of a dyke, before it flew fully into the open where it sat in the adjacent short grass field. Pretty cool!

The next day (Friday 26/04), I had a leisurely stroll between East & West Bank at Cley. The best bit of that was the Eye field, next to the beach car park. A confiding flock of waders were feeding here consisting of 29 Barwits (some in striking brick red plumage), 5-6 Whimbrel, 5+ male Ruff and nearby c5 summer-plumaged Golden Plover.









Mixed in with all that were also 10+ Wheatear and a pair of Grey Partridge. Pretty darn good mix of stuff!





Kieran also took me out around his local coastal patch of Trimmingham and while we missed out on some good birds, it was cool to check somewhere a bit different! We had a single Common Swift low over the cliffs which, being so close looked scarily big, but definitely no white belly! Plenty of warblers were about including several Reed, Sedge, Whitethroats & Lesser Whitethroats, as well as a couple of Common Sands on a nearby farm reservoir. A pair of pristine Early Purple Orchid Spikes were on a nearby roadside verge too.

Bank Holiday around the county

I spent Bank Holiday Monday (22/04) visiting a few Northants sites. It was a warm, sunny day, however despite the lack of cloud and rain, migrants were plentiful.

I began at Summer Leys, walking a full circuit of the reserve and adjacent Mary's Lake. A really good stroll about, with 7 adult Little Gulls, a flyover Marsh Harrier, an all-too-brief flock of 28 Barwits & one Black Tailed Godwit, a distant pair of Garganey in Wader Bay and a few late Fieldfares.







Other migrants included my first Garden & Reed Warblers of the year, Cuckoo, a couple of LRPs and lots of Warblers.







On next to Thrapston GPs, particularly to enjoy the two singing Nightingales that had recently arrived back. Walking up, I found the single, very distant Black Tern on Town Lake that was reported earlier. I watched it for a bit and then walked the short distance further along the river to the Nightingales which I could soon hear giving it full beans!

I sat down on the grass to enjoy them both, competing across the river. Sat next to one of them really did allow me to appreciate just how loud they are. A Blackcap singing closeby just couldn't compete! A little while later the Nightingale did venture out of the scrub for a short while but not for long before it flicked off to sing from another nearby bush. I left them to it!







After the Nightingales, I spent a bit of time scanning Aldwincle Lake and managed to pick out at least 1 Arctic Tern amongst good numbers of Commons.

On the walk back to the car, I spent a bit of time enjoying a particularly showy, displaying Sedgie. He was fully content sitting on top of his favoured pathside brambles and with a bit of fieldcraft, I was able to enjoy class views as he rattled off his repertoire!

Visits to both Hollowell Reservoir and then Harrington Airfield yielded very little - the latter has been holding regular reeling Groppers for last 10 days or so, so pretty disappointing not to connect. My luck with Groppers is usually pretty shite to be honest! 

Ah well, a fun day's birding, so all good!

A great patch day

The week began with very gloomy and sometimes showery conditions. This, coupled with a strong easterly wind, made it a promising few days for new birds, with seemingly good conditions for a decent drop of Little Gulls.

Monday looked particularly good, with lots of gloom, mist and showers. It felt like every bloody patch of water had Little Gulls except Grimsbury! I did though find our first Common Tern of the year which ended up lingering all day.

Tuesday again seemed promising and I arrived at the res nice and early for a good patch stint before work. Initially there was nothing then we were up and running! First one, then two adult Little Gulls dropped out of the clouds - one with a black hood, one not. They began non-stop dip-feeding over the water, giving at times, brilliant views, possibly the best I've had.

While watching the gulls a 'Commic' tern appeared and joined them in feeding over the water. I quickly realised it was in fact an Arctic Tern - probably my earliest ever in fact and part of a small sprinkling of them across inland sites. Another very decent patch bird - it was turning into a very good day!





Just when I thought it couldn't get any better...it did! a succession of Lesser Black Backed Gull alarm calls, alerted my attention to a raptor flying pretty low over the adjacent cattle field - a cream-crown Marsh Harrier!! WOW!





The harrier battled into the breeze, harassed all the way by the local pair of LBBGs, before it disappeared over the nearby Amazon warehouse.

A seriously brilliant bird for good old suburban Grimbo and a treasured patch tick! Arguably bird of the morning, however it was hard to beat those cracking Little Gulls!

This week has also seen the first few Yellow Wagtails appearing, giving a real splash of colour to proceedings! Two showed particularly well on Friday evening and with a fair bit of patience, allowed me to get some decent pics.





A few other pics from the patch during the last week or two: