I wasn’t able to make it down to the Meadow today but Richard Foster had: 7 DUNLIN, 3 OYSTERCATCHERS, a distant calling CUCKOO to the west of the Meadow and there was a LESSER WHITETHROAT in Burgess Field so if it’s the same one as before then perhaps they actually bred there this year. When I last visited Burgess Field there were quite a number of fledglings around which was very entertaining and I’m now getting a recently fledged great tit on my garden feeders.

Once more I am having to go away for a while so as usual please submit any sightings to Going Birding and I will update the blog on my return.

I’ll leave you with some video of some ringed plovers which I took a few nights ago (c) Adam Hartley

Wednesday and Thursday were very quiet  with just the odd RINGED PLOVER and LITTLE RINGED PLOVER to be found on the fast diminishing floods. Today there was some decent rain at last which topped things up and there was a bit more to look at in the form of a total of 7 DUNLIN and one RINGED PLOVER. However the highlight was a MEDITERRANEAN GULL in amongst the black-headed gulls which, judging by the amount of black in its wings, is moulting into first summer plumage. At this time of year with the June doldrums basically already upon us this was a most welcome find.

A videograb of tonight’s Med. gull. It really stood out from the black-headed gulls, partly through it’s longer and brighter-coloured legs  (c) Adam Hartley

A brief snippet of video before it flew off to the other end of the floods (c) Adam Hartley

A very windy day though it had dropped by the evening when I paid a visit to the Meadow. However the strong wind and sunshine had taken its toll on the flood levels and the water was noticeably lower than yesterday. Of late any passing waders have been along the west shore and I’ve not had any in the North Channel for some time. Today was no exception with three different groups: near the southern end were four RINGED PLOVER, three quarters of the way along were eight DUNLIN and on the spit were one RINGED PLOVER and a rather late LITTLE RINGED PLOVER. Still no sign of any stints in amongst them but I’ll keep trying. There were three YELLOW WAGTAILS still kicking around and I’ve been meaning to mention a delightful family of juvenile pied wagtails, newly hatched and frolicking around near the boats. There are good numbers of hirundines and swifts around in the evening and I even spotted a couple of sand martins this evening.

A row of eight dunlin (c) Adam Hartley

An evening visit to the Meadow turned up trumps in the form of a SANDERLING in the company of four DUNLIN. There had been three reported at Farmoor today so there was clearly a small passage going on but it was great to have one turn up on the Meadow as they are comparatively rare birds for the Meadow: less than annual and certainly rarer that wood sandpipers as far as the Meadow is concerned. Apart from that there was a single YELLOW WAGTAIL and one OYSTERCATCHER which was today down by the river. There has been a gradual increase in large gulls, mostly lesser black-backed over the last week with a few dozen birds this evening.

A pretty crappy record shot of the sanderling with a couple of dunlin but I only had my bins and my point & shoot camera with me and it was dusk by the time I turned up.  (c) Adam Hartley

We’re really getting to the "fag end" of the spring wader passage now with everything having a distinct June feel to it already. Still at least the floods have survived surprisingly well given that it was the driest April on record though there is a nasty green algal scum covering much of the water now. The last couple of days have seen a few RINGED PLOVER (4 yesterday and 2 today) and DUNLIN (1 yesterday and 2 today) passing through. There’s been the odd YELLOW WAGTAIL still about and yesterday I managed to hear a distant calling CUCKOO. Today the NUTHATCH was heared calling from its usual location. The 2 OYSTERCATCHERS were still around this evening and there are always plenty of black-headed gulls picking their way over the mud. A nice Temminck’s stint would round things off wonderfully but I suspect that we’re not going to get it now.

I keep meaning to post some photos but have been rather busy this week. I’ll try to catch up in the next day or two.

Definitely a bit of a "June doldrums" feel to the Meadow now though there are still some passage waders going through: the 16 RINGED PLOVER and 4 DUNLIN were still about on my morning run though by the evening the counts were down to 4 and 1 respectively so either the original flock split up or this was a new batch in. The GREENSHANK was still around as was the usual OYSTERCATCHER and there was a single male YELLOW WAGTAIL also around.

The Hinterland is look very pretty at the moment with a whole sea of buttercups all the way up to Wolvercote (c) Adam Hartley

Richard Foster found the following on an evening visit: 2 GARGANEY (pair), 15 RINGED PLOVER, 5 DUNLIN, 1 GREENSHANK,1OYSTERCATCER, 1 CUCKOO (Flying over N). The cuckoo is a year tick for the Meadow. The only thing that I could add on a later visit was a single YELLOW WAGTAIL.

Another end of day visit to the Meadow which was somewhat spoilt by a dog owner allowing their dog to run amuck all over the floods. Despite this there were still some passage waders to look at: the GREENSHANK was still there for the third day and fresh in today were 16 RINGED PLOVER, 5 DUNLIN and 1 COMMON SANDPIPER. The EGYPTIAN GOOSE was still around and there was one YELLOW WAGTAIL. To round things off the usual OYSTERCATCHER was in it’s usual spot. A COMMON TERN was also about.

The wood sandpiper didn’t stay long but on my evening visit I found the GREENSHANK still present and 3 DUNLIN dropped in whilst I was there. There were 3 OYSTERCATCHERS at the North end though one of them (perhaps the "resident" bird) seemed to take exception to the presence of the other two and kept chasing them agressively. Richard Foster reported a golden plover as well. The EGYPTIAN GOOSE was still around and there were a few larger gulls in amongst the black-headed gulls. Apart from that it was rather quiet.

A rather quiet day in the county and on the Meadow was enlivened this evening when I went out for "last orders" on the Meadow and discovered a nice WOOD SANDPIPER together with a GREENSHANK and five DUNLIN. This is the third wood sandpiper for the Meadow this spring already which is excellent going. There was also a (non-leucistic) EGYPTIAN GOOSE around as well as a couple of YELLOW WAGTAILS. The mute swan count this evening was an impressive 28 birds.

The wood sandpiper this evening (c) Adam Hartley