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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Oxfordshire birding (2 Viewers)

Mari E said:
Nope, 'No sign of the garganey'
So I ran like mad all the way from school to my house to cycle to Port Meadow for no reason then :(
Ah well, missing a little brown duck ain't gonna do much harm... sob sob :)

Also a greenshank on Port Meadow? ah, well, it just happens that garganey and greenshank are my bogey birds... (along with many others)
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Hi Mari,
Well done on getting your garganey at Farmoor! From the photos that I've seen it seems to be offering very close views.

Adam
 
Thank you :)
It was such a tame bird, literally swimming right in front of all the birders and photograpgers. We all got nice views.
The little gulls were far out and I could just about distinguish them by the size. Not the greatest view but still a lifer :)
Also thank you to the people who pointed me in the right direction, I don't know if they're anyone here but I wouldn't have found the little gulls by myself :)
 
I figured Port Meadow is enjoying quite a lot of coverage at the moment, so I'm focussing on Oxey Mead. Fairly average afternoon today, but I did have a flock of c.30 Sand Martins fly high north at the end of my visit, looking pretty purposeful. A great spring moment :t:
 
I haven't caught up with all the spring visitors yet - I haven't seen the sand martins or chiffchaffs yet. This weekend I should be able to go down to Port Meadow...
 
Took myself off for a walk on the ridgeway and bridleways around west ilsley today. Plenty to see, Lapwings calling and displaying, corn buntings, loads of meadow pipits, skylarks, the usual collection of buzzards and kites, grey and red legged partridges, 3 ravens and a solitary male bullfinch. I also heard a lesser spotted woodpecker calling in the woods out towards catmore. Didn't see it, again. One day i will. maybe.
 
A very early Hobby today also a Knot at Farmoor and Grey plover at Otmoor (Whimbrels over the weekend). For more info check out the Oxon bird log or the new Farmoor Blog.

Gareth
 
I decided to go for the slavonian grebe this morning - I managed to find it from the 'bus stop' but it wasn't a great view as it kept on diving(it was still a lifer though!). Also 2 yellow wagtails on causeway.
 
Had a gentle stroll around Dry Sandford Pit yesturday. Sat and watched 5 Sand Martins checking out the cliff face. Saw my first House Martin of the year today whilst cleaning my bike.
 
Managed a few shots of the Slavonian Grebe at Farmoor on Saturday
 

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Great pics :)

I went down to Port Meadow this morning but as Richard Foster reported, there were only 2 oystercatchers, 2 shelducks and all the other commoner birds. No sign of yellow wagtails (I didn't spot ANY wagtail, actually) or the garganeys.
 
Fantastic morning at Port Meadow today, highlights being a Wood Sandpiper and a really close flypast from a Peregrine! More on my diary (see below). It was great to meet a few more Oxfordshire birders too.
 
Today I thought I'd go to either Port Meadow or Farmoor but I (wrongly) chose Farmoor! The reports of this morning looked promising so I spent around 4 hours there but seeing barely no migrants. I only got 2 dunlins! And if I'd gone to Port Meadow I'd have got the white stork....
 
Mari E said:
Today I thought I'd go to either Port Meadow or Farmoor but I (wrongly) chose Farmoor! The reports of this morning looked promising so I spent around 4 hours there but seeing barely no migrants. I only got 2 dunlins! And if I'd gone to Port Meadow I'd have got the white stork....
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Hi Mari,
It was good to meet you yesterday. Don't beat yourself up about the stork too much: it was there for all of five minutes from the time it was found until it flew off so even if you had gone to the Meadow, unless you'd happened to be there at just that time you would have missed it. Birding is a bit like that though, it's very easy to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Adam
 
Hi,
I was hoping to bump into you sometime or other and it was great to meet you.
Yep, you're either at the right place at the right time and you go home happy or you see bugger all!
I saw 2 wader flying low on F2 so I thought 'It must be something good...' so walked around F2 only to find dunlins :)
 
Mari E said:
Yep, you're either at the right place at the right time and you go home happy or you see bugger all!
I saw 2 wader flying low on F2 so I thought 'It must be something good...' so walked around F2 only to find dunlins :)
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True, but imagine how gutted you'd be if you hadn't checked them and they'd turned out to be Red-necked Stints!

There's a lot of luck in birding, but on the plus side you're young enough that you'll have other opportunities to see most birds. Who knows, by the time you're 70 White Storks could easily be breeding in the UK... :smoke:
 
jimmyg said:
True, but imagine how gutted you'd be if you hadn't checked them and they'd turned out to be Red-necked Stints!

There's a lot of luck in birding, but on the plus side you're young enough that you'll have other opportunities to see most birds. Who knows, by the time you're 70 White Storks could easily be breeding in the UK... :smoke:
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I certainly think that birds like storks, crane, egrets and exotic herons will become increasingly common as global warming increases. In fact when I was a lad little egret was very rare. I then gave up birding for a while (the wilderness years) and then four years ago (still a non-birder) I was going for a run on Port Meadow when I saw all these little egrets. I couldn't believe it and went back home to look them up only to discover that they were now really common. Then a few days later a pectoral sandpiper turned up on the Meadow and this piqued my interest enough to get me back into birding. Sorry I seem to have started rambling but the point of the story was that little egrets used to be really rare and now aren't and I think that many other continental birds will go the same way.
 
It's funny how birds like little egrets and collared doves produced mega-twitches several decades ago but now they're among the commonest birds around! :t:

Cranes are being reintroduced and we've had a successful purple heron breeding last year, who knows, Port Meadow might be alive with pruple herons in few decades;)
 
Oystercatchers in the middle of a field at Farmoor ! + White Wagtail on the causeway
 

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