Today overcast and very cold with little wind.

The floods were frozen over all day so a late afternoon visit found just a 100 odd teal standing forlornly on the ice with a few wigeon mixed in amongst them. There were also about half a dozen of the BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, a single DUNLIN and a couple of RUFF. About 75 or so golden plover also arrived to join the huddle but were rather flighty (see the video below) and ended up scaring some of the other waders away.

There were a few gulls around for the roost, including a couple of COMMON GULLS, though most of them didn’t stay long and headed off west, presumably to roost at Farmoor.

A video of the birds standing on the frozen floods. To watch in high quality mode click here and select "Watch in High Quality"

Today continuing rather cold with a light breeze.

A late afternoon visit to the Meadow found wader numbers somewhat reduced in numbers, possibly because of the large number of Sunday walkers around. There were about 10 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS and a similar number of RUFF, with about 6 DUNLIN and 4 REDSHANKS also present. There was a modest flock of about 75 golden plover. There were much more PINTAIL around with at least a dozen birds on the water.

In the gull roost there were at least 7 COMMON GULL including one first winter bird. In addition there was a rather smart adult YELLOW-LEGGED GULL.

Elsewhere in Oxon: a slavonian grebe was present yesterday at Farmoor but not today. The red-head smew is still around at Dix Pit after spending one day at Farmoor recently. The great northern diver(s) and the scaup are also still at Farmoor.

The yellow-legged gull: the clean white head and clean dark mantle still stand out in the crowd though herring gulls will soon be starting to lose their streaked heads making it much harder to pick the yellow-legged out. © Adam Hartley

Today sunny, bright but a bit cold.

A good number of birds still on the Meadow though whilst I was there an errant dog was leading it’s owner a merry dance as it ran around after the birds. 24 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS today, c 25 DUNLIN, 4 REDSHANK and c 20 RUFF. There were more PINTAIL around today with at least 10 present. There were good numbers of gulls about with several hundred present with at least two COMMON GULLS in amongst them. A red-head GOOSANDER was back on the flood water.

Some of the large gull flock on the Meadow today. You can see a couple of common gulls along the front row © Adam Hartley

A Happy Christmas to all readers of this blog! This morning somewhat colder but with sunny intervals and only a moderate breeze.

Plenty of birds on the Meadow at late morning today. 22 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, c 20 RUFF, c 19 DUNLIN and 2 REDSHANK were present on the wader front. Only moderate numbers of golden plover but lots of lapwings. On the duck front there were several gadwall and at least 5 PINTAIL in amongst the usual wigeon, teal and shoveler. A single COMMON SHELDUCK was on the north shore. A SPARROWHAWK flew over.

A Christmas wigeon @ Adam Hartley

This morning overcast and with a bit of a north-westerly breeze but mild.

Many of the waders were down at the south end asleep this morning: c. 26 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS with 8 or so RUFF and the SPOTTED REDSHANK still though with its head and bill tucked in and its legs hidden there was not much beyond smaller size and slightly different coloured back to distinguish it from the the godwits. Another 10 RUFF were along the west shore together with 15+ DUNLIN. Only a few golden plover were around. There were at least 100 lesser black-backed gulls, a few herring and a couple of greater-black backed around. There were still 3 or 4 PINTAIL around amongst the usual ducks. A single red-head GOOSANDER was in the north end of the floods along with a great-crested grebe so perhaps some fish have been trapped by the recent floods.

Not much more than a record shot of the goosander on the floods today © Adam Hartley

From OXB:

1 SPOTTED REDSHANK, 22 BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, 35 RUFF, 19 DUNLIN, c600 lapwing, 65 golden plover, 4prs PINTAIL, countless wigeon, teal and shoveler, 2 great black-backed gull, 1 YELLOW-LEGGED GULL, kingfisher, nuthatch.

A video grab of a yellow legged gull taken a few evenings earlier © Adam Hartley

This morning calm, with sunny intervals.

The floods have once more receded back towards their more normal winter levels. Most of the waders were down at the souther west corner with usual numbers of the usual birds: BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, RUFF and DUNLIN were all seen. I couldn’t see the spotted redshank but as I only had my bins with me it is possible that I may have missed it. Plenty of the usual ducks, lapwings and some golden plover and a few lesser black-backed gulls in amongst the black-headed.

Further to the number of gulls at the evening roost, I was out all day yesterday but was driving back into Oxford at about 4pm when I could see large numbers of gulls coming in heading towards Port Meadow (though they could be going on to Farmoor of course). This adds weight to my theory that there are lots of late-arriving gulls roosting at the Meadow leading to much larger roost numbers than one thinks.

This morning a gorgeous start to the day with sunshine and blue sky.

A run along the west bank of the river found the flood waters receding once more and a fair bit of grass now exposed by the river. The SPOTTED REDSHANK was still working its way along the shore and there were a few of the BLACK-TAILED GODWITS down at that end. The GOLDEN PLOVER flock were flying about with a flock of 16 DUNLIN in attendance. Along the river bank past the Perch were 4 REDSHANK. At least 11 RUFF were flying around as well. I also spotted the comparatively unusual sighting of a GREEN SANDPIPER resting on the west shore.

Misty first thing this morning; later overcast but calm and comparatively mild.

This afternoon on the meadow the SPOTTED REDSHANK was sitll present on the narrow strip of grass at the west end of the floods, best viewed from the west bank of the river, near the Perch. There were also 29 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS, 10 RUFF and 2 COMMON REDSHANK in the same area. The GOLDEN PLOVER roost contained at least 1200 birds this evening. There was a reasonable gull roost with at least 2 YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS.  Unfortunately there was no sign of yesterday’s two Bewick’s swans.

After it was too dark to see I did some digiscoped videoing, using the light-compensated image on the camera screen to watch the gulls. I was amazed at how many more seemed to arrive as it got dark and there must have been several thousand birds present in total. Unfortunately the image wasn’t really good enough to do much identification but it was a great revelation.

The spotted redshank with a ruff and two godwits © Adam Hartley

This morning overcast but calm and comparatively mild.

The floods were even more lake-like this morning with hardly any grass visible and the waters now extending up towards the north end of Burgess Field NR. I only had my bins with me and so couldn’t make out much but three red-head GOOSANDER were on the water at the south end, not doubt fooled by the size of the water into thinking that there might be more fishing opportunities than there actually will be. The usual ducks were around at the north end.

In Burgess Field NR I went looking for jack snipe but only managed 4 common SNIPE. There was also a rather nice goldcrest at the north end.

Late afternoon Update: viewing from the west bank of the river close to the Perch, across to the floods, a great session was had. Despite very poor light, close views of a cracking SPOTTED REDSHANK on the one remaining section of grass. This by no means common wader is another year tick for the Meadow. It was accompanied by 26 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS and 5 RUFF. In the distance 1 REDSHANK was seen; there were probably more of these and also more ruff along the north shore which couldn’t easily be seen from my viewing point. A few distant DUNLIN were also seen in flight. In the distance in the middle of the flood were two BEWICKS SWANS. To round of a great selection of birds, in the gull roost were two probable YELLOW LEGGED GULLS.

The spotted redshank, taken in abysmal light with ISO 800. © Adam Hartley

Below is some video footage of the spotted redshank feeding. To view in high quality mode, click here and select "Watch in High Quality Mode".

The spotted redshank feeding on the floods

I also took some video of the two Bewick’s Swans but the birds are very distant and the light is very poor so I recommend viewing it only in high quality mode. Go to here and select "Watch in High Quality". My apologies for the poor focusing at the start but the light was so bad that it was not easy to see when it was in focus.