30th
The Magpies have successfully raised young!
22nd-29th
Had some great weather and a great time at Orielton Field Studies Centre in Pembrokeshire this week. Birding highlights included Guillemot and Razorbill, singing Rock Pipits, Red Kite, some great views of Ravens, a Peregrine and Chough (on several occasions, totalling almost 20 birds!). However, the week was good for wildlife all round. Moth highlights included Beautiful Carpet, Common Lutestring (both new for me) and Orange Footman. Great Diving Beetles and several Palmate Newts were found in the pond. Long-eared Bats were present at the site, with two actually found roosting in one of the classrooms, and several Badgers were seen including one youngster which approached me to within half a metre! I learnt a lot about plants, especially poisonous ones - apparently Hemlock Water Dropwort Oenanthe crocata, the second most poisonous plant in the UK, has no known antidote and is almost never tested for in autopsies whilst being metabolised an a matter of hours, making it an excellent murder weapon! I also saw Twayblade and Pyramidal Orchid and a rare species of alga Chara. Rockpooling, we saw sponges, sea squirts, chitons and sea lemons amongst many other interesting finds, though the best was a small but brilliantly-coloured nudibranch (sea slug)! A fantastic trip all round.
Late last night a Silver Y flew in through my window, not quite of the calibre of Great Knot or Oriental Pratincole, but a migrant nevertheless.
21st
A Grey Heron landed on a roof very near my window today, giving wonderful views. What a charismatic bird! Tomorrow I am off to the Pembrokeshire coast on an ecology field trip, so hopefully I will have something more interesting to post about soon.
16th
Got up to go to the gym this morning to find that none of my mates had managed to drag themselves out of bed, so I decided to combine exercise with birding and cycle as fast as I could to Port Meadow! The best bird I saw was a fly-over Grey Heron.
However, whilst walking around New College later in the day the unmistakeable silhoutte of a falcon flew over - my first Hobby of the year!
15th
Having ordered my prescription, I inevitably had to pick it up. This entailed another trip to Port Meadow. Despite the rains last night, it was looking pretty similar to yesterday, with a similar variety of birds! However, I decided to check the whole Meadow so I wouldn't miss out again. I didn't get anything of comparable calibre to the Spoonbill which Adam Hartley had briefly this morning, but a gorgeous female Wheatear showing characteristics of the Greenland race was both confiding and interesting. A Herring Gull settled on the floods briefly - an unusual sighting given present conditions! There were also hundreds of hirundines on the river, including a Sand Martin.
14th
Went to Jericho to order a repeat prescription... and who can go to Jericho without taking a quick peek at Port Meadow? It was not at its best however: since the pool was reduced to little more than a muddy hollow the only bird of note I saw was a Redshank. I missed out on three Ringed Plovers because I felt so dismayed at the sorry sight in front of me that I left before even reaching Burgess Field - were it filled with water, Port Meadow would be shrouded in Black Terns at the moment!
Speaking of which, I was outside in St Peter's main quad when I heard a short chorus of unusual calls overhead. Being in a conversation at the time I felt it would be rude to start staring at the sky, but about 60 seconds later (having listened to the relevant bird calls on my computer) I wish I had - I almost certainly just missed a small flock of Black Terns!
13th
Had a great afternoon at University Parks. We were conducting an experiment, which involved feeding bread to ducks to see whether they foraged optimally (maximised their energy intake)! I'm not sure how successful our results will turn out to be, but it was great fun and made better by the presence of a Common Tern on the pond!
11th
A Grey Heron flew over St Peter's this afternoon.
10th
I was trying to concentrate on shooting during an outdoor archery competition in Leamington Spa today, but still managed to get distracted by several Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk being mobbed by Swallows and a Great-spotted Woodpecker.
9th
The birds weren't playing ball at Port Meadow this evening, save for the Cetti's Warbler (and possibly a Grasshopper Warbler heard distantly). However, as I was walking back I found 3 Common Sandpipers together on the near shore, which had obviously flown in whilst I was in Burgess Field - Port Meadow never fails to turn up something of interest!
7th
There was definitely a marked increase in Swift numbers today, and having woken up before first light to finish an essay I was able to witness a significant early-morning arrival, with smaller numbers of Swallows. Interestingly this coincided with reports from Titchwell RSPB of a noticeable westerly passage of Swift, Swallow and Yellow Wagtail yesterday evening - these birds may well have arrived via the Denver Sluice flyway! I wonder whether we will see the Yellow Wagtails catch up tomorrow?
Other birds of note included a Buzzard seen thermalling distantly from St Peter's College, and a Red Kite which flew low over Iffley Road sports centre.
5th
There seem to be many more Swifts and Swallows around Oxford today, but I am not sure whether they are new arrivals or a result of the weather conditions.
