I’d been keeping an eye on reports of one or two first winter serins that had been seen regularly at Rainham Marshes RSPB reserve for a couple of months. With the end of my enforced confinement due to the snowy weather I felt keen to undertake a longer birding trip and so I decided to have a crack at these birds. I left the house at around 7:30am and braved the rush-hour traffic on the M40 and M25 which actually wasn’t too bad and the journey took ten minutes over two hours, about twenty minutes longer than without the traffic. I arrived to find conditions very overcast with low level cloud and a bit of a breeze. I asked at the reserve reception about the serins and was given instructions on how to find "serin-mound", the main viewing point where the birds could often be seen. I set off on my journey which involved walking along the sea wall and I kept a keen lookout for finches as I went. There were plenty of greenfinches, chaffinches and goldfinches around at the beginning but as I progressed so the number of finches decreased and soon there were very few to be seen at all. On the other side of the wall the tide was going out and this was exposing a nice area of mud which was increasingly attracting birds. There were several dozen shelducks, a single curlew and a few redshank all feeding away.  A few rock pipits were working their way along the rocky parts of the shoreline. There were some ducks, mostly wigeon as well as plenty of gulls on the river itself.

A curlew feeding in the mud. This bird was actually quite far away so I’m pleased with how well this videograb came out.

One of a number of feeding shelduck on the mud

I walked round the bend and soon found the mound on which a fellow birder was stood. He told me that normally the serins were in the company of goldfinches but that he’d not seen any finches at all whilst he’d been there which tallied with the dearth of birds that I was experiencing. Soon after I arrived he decided that he’d had enough and departed, leaving me to survey the scene. It was indeed a good vantage point but there was a bit of a chilly breeze blowing into the slope on the mound and I wondered if this had driven the birds off to a more sheltered spot. I had read that they could often be seen some distance from the mound itself so I decided to walk a bit further on to see if I could track down any finches at all. About 400m beyond the mound I found a flock of linnets feeding close by and a young stonechat flitting around in the bushes.

One of the linnets. The background here is actually a passing lorry but the darker colour brings out the birds lovely tones more than the pale sky would have done

Given that it was rather chilly I decided that rather than just standing around I would walk back and forth in the general area in order to maximise my chances of tracking down the serins. I walked part way back along the sea wall and back to the mound with no luck and no additional birds so I decided to walk back to the sea wall to see if I could track down the water pipit that had been reported in amongst the rock pipits. I spent a pleasant hour or so walking along the sea wall photographing all the pipits but I didn’t see any that were water pipits though some of the rocks were unusually pale with comparatively unsullied undersides compared to more typical rock pipits. With the tide now at its lowest there were a total of forty redshank and thirty dunlin to be seen either on the mud or flying around.

A rather pale rock pipit though the under-feathers aren’t white enough nor is the supercilium strong enough for it to be a water pipit

Having had my fill of pipits I decided to do one more circuit to look for the serins though by now I’d mentally accepted the dip. Up on the mound there was a kestrel posing in a tree and the stonechat had moved down into a field on the other side of the stream. A lovely female marsh harrier was hawking over the scrub and I endeavoured to take some video of it though trying to digiscope a flying raptor is nigh on impossible and I was quite pleased even to get anything out at all. I did get rather excited when I found a flock of goldfinches feeding on the slope. Would there be an elusive serin in amongst them? No, was the answer, just a meadow pipit lurking in the undergrowth.

The stonechat. I quite liked the composition of this with the twig and the fence in the background

The kestrel

The female marsh harrier just in the frame!

A big ship going down the river in the mist

By now it was time to head back home. I’d not managed to see the serins at all which was most disappointing given the effort involved in getting there. I’m not in the same league as hard-core twitchers who are used to travelling hundreds of miles only to dip out and I do comparatively major trips like this only infrequently so to miss my target bird was a "waste" of a day off in some senses. On the other hand I’d managed some surprisingly acceptable photos given how gloomy it was and how far away the birds had been and it is always nice to visit a different type of habitat from what one can encounter back home. I’d enjoyed "rummaging" amongst the rock pipits for a water pipit and as waders are my favourites it had been great to see some out on the mud flats. I fully expect the birds to be reported again at Rainham in a day or two’s time so it will be just one of those things when a bird goes awol for a while. There were also a few more ticks to add to the year list.

National Year List 2010
077    shelduck         19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
078    reed bunting     19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
079    curlew           19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
080    dunlin           19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
081    rock pipit       19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
082    stonechat        19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
083    marsh harrier    19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
084    little egret     19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes
085    green woodpecker 19/01/2010    Rainham Marshes

Oxon Year List 2010
072    jay                18/01/2010    Radley
073    pochard            18/01/2010    Radley
074    yellow-legged gull 18/01/2010    Port Meadow
075    green woodpecker   20/01/2010    Port Meadow

During the snowy weather a trio of drake smew had been located on the river at Dorchester, taking refuge from the frozen lakes. They’d been seen most days during the week but work commitments had meant that I wasn’t able to make a sortie out there until Saturday afternoon when I took L out for an afternoon visit that way. I’d not actually been out with L for some time now, partly as he requires less overseeing at home now that he’s older (and so it’s less of an imposition on my VLW if I do go out) and partly because he’s less included himself to be dragged out to some wind-blasted location in the middle of winter whilst I look at birds. He was rather reluctant this time too but once we arrived he really got into it. He’s becoming quite keen on walking now and walked a good half a mile whilst chatting away and splashing in the puddles with his wellies. As far as the smew hunting was concerned they’d been seen both up and downstream of the lock at Day’s Lock so it was not a case of simply turning up and ticking, rather they had to be looked for. As it happened though, as we were arriving we met a fellow birder who’d just searched upstream so we decided to do downstream together. He was a very active Bird Track reporter: in fact last year he made the fourth highest number of reports on the system with an amazing count of over twelve thousand submissions! Anyway, this meant that my companion was keen to record every species that we saw which made it rather more interesting that usual and I soon got into the spirit of looking out for birds for his list. We found four goosander tucked in under the trees on the far bank though they took flight before I could attempt a photo. There was a rather nice flock of goldfinches in an alder tree with a couple of siskins in amongst them. A flock of canada geese were grazing in the middle of a field and there were tufted duck and little and great crested grebes on the river. A sparrowhawk buzzed over and four red kites were soaring over the wood on the other side of the river. After a while with no sign of any smew my companion decided to call it a day but L and I walked a bit further on to see what we could find. L found some ice which he ate a bit of (well, at least it will boosts his immune system!) and as we were heading back in the gathering dark a red kite posed in a distant tree long enough for a quick videograb record shot. Despite not finding the smew it had been a pleasant afternoon’s walk which we had both enjoyed.

Dorchester red kite videograbbed in the distance at dusk

Later that evening the three smew were reported as having been relocated on a pit very close to where we were which was a tad frustrating. I was tied up the next day with family stuff but on the Monday I had some spare time and wondered about trying to find them. An enquiry on OxonBirds revealed that the birds had been looked for but not found on the pit so they’d probably gone. Fortunately however a red-head smew had turned up on Thrupp Lake at Radley so I sent a text to Jason Coppock, whose patch Radley was, asking if he were popping in there on the way to work and whether he could let me know if the smew was still there. A while later I got a text back saying that it was indeed still present so, as I would be passing the recycling centre en route, I loaded up the car with some junk that needed recycling and set off towards Radley. A short while later I arrived, meeting up with Peter Barker and Jason who was still there. The smew was being rather secretive when we arrived, tucked in behind an island though after a while it showed again though always rather distant. I was keen to take some record shots but smew can be very difficult to photograph as they dive so frequently. Nevertheless I persevered and managed some shots of at least record shot quality.

Two record shots of the Radley red-head smew. Unfortunately all the real close-up shots were of even poorer quality.

Smew are such lovely ducks that it’s always a pleasure to see them. It’s a shame that I didn’t catch up with the three drakes but the Radley red-head was a nice bird to see. A few more ticks to add to the year lists:

National 2010
069    siskin          16/01/2010    Dorchester
070    red kite        16/01/2010    Dorchester
071    little grebe    16/01/2010    Dorchester
072    stock dove      16/01/2010    Dorchester
073    pintail         17/01/2010    Port Meadow
074    gadwall         17/01/2010    Port Meadow
075    jay             17/01/2010    Langley, Bucks
076    smew            18/01/2010    Radley

Oxon 2010
065    siskin          16/01/2010    Dorchester
066    red kite        16/01/2010    Dorchester
067    little grebe    16/01/2010    Dorchester
068    stock dove      16/01/2010    Dorchester
069    pintail         17/01/2010    Port Meadow
070    gadwall         17/01/2010    Port Meadow
071    smew            18/01/2010    Radley
072    jay             18/01/2010    Radley
073    pochard         18/01/2010    Radley

Thank god the snowy weather has finally ended. After the initial excitement of a decent snowfall in Oxford had worn off I spent much of the time worrying about how the birds were coping with the conditions. I even went a bought a load of new bird feeders and enough food to feed my usual garden visitors for the whole year in a bid to do my bit. I’ve deployed a Nyger feeder now which is being much appreciated by our regular visiting goldfinches with a peak count of nine birds in our small garden. Apples have also been a great discovery for me: I know that it’s common advice but until this cold snap I’d not actually got around to putting some out but some apple halves judiciously placed around the garden or impaled on some nails that I put in the top of our trellis have really brought the thrushes in with up to four blackbirds, a song thrush, several redwings and two fieldfares all taking advantage of them. Also I’ve finally had blackcaps actually feeding in the garden: in the past they’ve merely passed through but they have been much enjoying the apples and it’s been great to watch them feeding away. In addition to these birds there have been a regular flock of six starlings as well as a couple of chaffinches, a dunnock, two greenfinches, an occasional coal tit but surprisingly just one blue tit and one great tit – normally there are more tits around in the garden so I hope they’ve managed to survive the cold spell ok.

I recently bought a new camera, a Panasonic Lumix TZ7, not particularly for birding but simply in order to take everyday snaps. It has 10Megapixels and an amazing 12x optical zoom. My desk where I work looks out onto the back garden and I’ve been taking snaps through the (rather dirty) glass window if I see anything interesting and some of them have come out OK. It’s never going to compete with a DSLR or get the magnification of digiscoping but it’s useful to take a quick record shot. Below are a few of my shots.

I hadn’t seen a song thrush in the garden for a while now so it was nice to have this one pay us a visit.

This greater spotted woodpecker visited a few times but never seemed to stay very long.

Fieldfares are very smart birds and it was a pleasure to have a couple in the garden

One of the two visiting blackcaps feeding on an impaled apple

With the laid-back approach to listing this year there are just a few additions to the year lists to note:

National 2010
066 great spotted woodpecker  07/01/2010    Garden
067 treecreeper               14/01/2010    Oxford Canal
068 goldcrest                 14/01/2010    Oxford Canal

Oxon 2010
062 great spotted woodpecker  07/01/2010    Garden
063 treecreeper               14/01/2010    Oxford Canal
064 goldcrest                 14/01/2010    Oxford Canal

Having been more or less house-bound for more than a week now due to the snow the only birding I’d done had been slogging through the snow on Port Meadow. On the Meadow I’d discovered that there were still some birds to be seen along the river and the Mill Stream, a small side stream with the highlights having been a water rail scurrying away in the undergrowth and a few redshank and snipe along the river banks. As the roads were becoming passable again I thought that I would venture out a bit further and with a first winter glaucous gull having been seen at the BBOWT reserve at Calvert the previous day I thought that I would have a crack at that.

I’d been worried about the state of the road leading up to Calvert but it turned out that it had been recently gritted and swept so it was in reasonable condition and I arrived at the parking area at around 2:30pm. A quick look in the first hide revealed the lake amazingly to be almost entirely ice free with just the far bank fringes iced over.  There were lots of gulls dotted all round the lake so I made my way to the second hide from which there is a better view of the whole area. I started scanning through the birds looking for the coffee colouring of a first winter glaucous. In passing I noted a flock of 14 red-crested pochards in the middle of the lake, doing an interesting head nodding display which looked rather comical. As I continued scanning I noticed what appeared to be a white winged adult gull swimming in the water. I tracked it for a while and it eventually reached the ice fringe where it got out and started grooming. At that point I started doing some video recording as it did look interesting but the hide was constructed so the floor boards kept vibrating up and down so I soon had to stop and adjust my tripod to try to minimise the bounce.  I did a bit more recording, made some more adjustments but then couldn’t find the bird again. I had been a bit confused by what appeared to be a dark band below the white primaries. Puzzled as to what exactly it had been I resumed scanning through the flock and soon afterwards found the glaucous gull which I spent some time trying to photograph though it was a good distance away and there was very little light. Very pleased with having connected with the glaucous gull and not wanting to get too caught up in the rush-hour traffic I soon left and managed to get home shortly after 4pm

Several glaucous gull shots
A wing flap of the glaucous gull
Some of the red-crested pochard flock with a yellow-legged gull in front of them

The next morning I was going through my photos and I remembered the mysterious white-winged gull that I’d seen so I made a couple of grabs and had a look. It seemed to have some pale grey marks along the primaries so I started to wonder about a Kumlien’s gull though I was still a bit confused by the dark line beneath them: was this a partially hidden black primary – I just didn’t have the experience. I spoke with Ian Lewington about the bird and he explained that the dark line is the coalescing of a number of darker feather tips beneath the outermost primaries. He also said on first inspection that he thought the bird was good for a Kumliens though after the ID was queried by others I asked him to take another look and after he’d had time to consider it fully at it he agreed that actually it was a herring gull with unusually pale (perhaps partially melanistic) primaries. Apparently the mantle colour was too dark and the bird not delicate-looking as an iceland gull is. Still an interesting bird and a fine example of what a minefield gull identification can be if even someone such as Ian can be fooled on first inspection.

A grab of the mystery gull – a herring gull not a Kumlien’s gull as I’d hoped

Another grab of the bird

The video footage of the mystery gull

I’d been pleased just to see the glaucous gull and the ID tussle concerning the possible Kumlien’s had been most interesting. My more leisurely-paced year list is ticking along albeit at a rather sedate rate: I’ve managed to miss the Otmoor bittern fest and the Piddington swan fest already but in my non-county year listing mode I’m concentrating more on quality than quantity this year.

National & Oxon Year List 2010
046    dunnock          04/01/2010    Garden
047    bullfinch        04/01/2010    Garden
048    mute swan        05/01/2010    Port Meadow
049    mistle thrush    05/01/2010    Port Meadow
050    wren             05/01/2010    Port Meadow
051    golden plover    05/01/2010    Port Meadow
052    tufted duck      05/01/2010    Port Meadow
053    skylark          05/01/2010    Port Meadow
054    snipe            05/01/2010    Port Meadow
055    coal tit         07/01/2010    Garden
056    song thrush      07/01/2010    Garden
057    grey heron       08/01/2010    Port Meadow
058    goosander        08/01/2010    Port Meadow
059    water rail       08/01/2010    Port Meadow
060    common gull      08/01/2010    Port Meadow
061    blackcap         10/01/2010    Garden

National Year List 2010
062    pochard                  11/01/2010    Calvert, Bucks
063    RC pochard               11/01/2010    Calvert, Bucks
064    glaucous gull            11/01/2010    Calvert, Bucks
065    Yellow-Legged gull       11/01/2010    Calvert, Bucks

I’ve reviewed the county year as a separate entry as it was such a big part of my birding year for 2009. However I thought that I would have a brief reminisce about my out of county birding this year just gone and also to look forward to the year ahead.

Looking back there were two family holidays in 2009 which were fortunately both in great birding locations and which offered me an opportunity to see some birds which I would not normally encounter. Dingle gave me iceland and glaucous gulls as well as my first black guillemots. Mull was a fantastic holiday where we seemed to be staying in the best birding location and I was able to see almost everything that I was after almost from my back door: white-tailed sea eagles, golden eagles, twite, artic skua and great skua were all much enjoyed with only corncrake eluding me but it was just too late in the season for them. Apart from that the only major birding expedition was my trip down to Devon where I stayed overnight and enjoyed a full day’s birding by the sea. I was able to see: cattle egret, spoonbill, surf scoter, velvet scoter, cirl bunting and penduline tit as well as a probable Siberian chiffchaff on what was probably my favourite trip of the year.

Apart from these major trips there were little part-day excursions to see specific bird: green-winged teal at Eyebrook Reservoir in Leicestershire; mealy redpoll at Padworth in Berkshire; goshawks at New Fancy View; roseate terns at Brownsea Island; golden orioles at Lakenheath; honey buzzard in the New Forest; wryneck at Lathbury in Bucks.; the Staine’s Moor brown shrike; the Hampshire spotted sandpiper and the Worcestershire glossy ibis were all nice little twitches.

As I mentioned previously I’ve managed 28 lifers this year which has been most gratifying. Let’s hope that 2010 is just as enjoyable and rewarding. I’m definitely not doing another full-on county year list though I will keep track of my county score out of interest. I think that this year ahead I will concentrate on county and life list lifers to try and get both these lists up to something a little more respectable.

Doing a county year list has certainly meant that I’ve been more attuned to all the sightings within the county and whilst I don’t have much past county birding experience against which to compare it does seem to have been a good year for the county. Below are the final scores for the three of us who did the year listing:

Jason Coppock 200 (a new county year listing record)
Myself                  195
Tom Wickens     192

County Total 217

Note this was strict BOU except that the American Black Tern was counted as it seems a dead cert for a split. The Azorean Yellow-Legged Gull and the Baltic Gull were not included so if they are split then these totals will be increased. Amazingly, if Jason hadn’t left the county so often I calculate that he could have got another five birds which were all twitchable so it just shows what could have been achieved. Please note that the county total (and indeed this entire account) is my unofficial version and not the official total/list. Note also that Tom also achieved the amazing feat of doing twelve month lists all in excess of 100 ticks and mostly on foot!

Below is a list of the rarities and good county birds that we had over the past year.

Rarities
========
Marsh Warbler (Otmoor)
Spoonbill (Otmoor,Port Meadow)
Great White Egret (Otmoor)
Bonaparte’s Gull (Farmoor)
White-Winged Black Tern (Farmoor)
(American Black Tern) (Farmoor)
Grey Phalarope (Blenheim Palace,Radley)
Sabine’s Gull (Blenheim Palace)
(Baltic Gull) (Didcot/Appleford)
(Azorean Gull) (Didcot/Appleford)
American Wigeon (Sonning Eye)
Temminck’s Stint (Abingdon)
Rose-coloured Starling (Forest Hill)
Great Grey Shrike (near Ewelme)  – MISSED
Cattle Egret (Dorchester) – MISSED
Pectoral Sandpiper (Radley) – MISSED
Crane (various locations but not twitchable) – MISSED
Pratincole (Otmoor – not twitchable) – MISSED
Hoopoe (supressed) – MISSED
Wryneck (someone’s garden – not twitchable) – MISSED
Yellow-browed warbler (not twitchable) – MISSED
Ring-necked Duck  – MISSED

Good County Birds
=================
Little Tern
Firecrest
Bar-tailed Godwit
Nightingale
Avocet
Bearded Tit
Red-breated Merganser
(Greenland) White-fronted Goose
Willow Tit
Brent Goose
Shag
Black Redstart
Black-throated Diver
Great Northern Diver
Snow Bunting
Slavonian Grebe
Gannet
Snow Bunting
Kittiwake – MISSED
Long-tailed Duck – MISSED
Black-necked Grebe
Smew
Pink-footed Goose
Iceland Gull
Waxwing
Bittern
Lesser-spotted Woodpecker
Ring Ouzel
Pied Flycatcher (not twitchable) – MISSED
Roseate Tern (not twitchable) – MISSED
Manx Shearwater – MISSED
Mealy Redpoll  – MISSED

I’ve marked as "MISSED" the birds that I didn’t personally see. To that list should be added things like little stint, grey plover and water pipit which somehow I didn’t get to see

A montage of some of the county birds for 2009

All that remains is for me to wish all readers of this blog a very Happy New Year!

With the Christmas festivities comfortably over and no work to worry about until the New Year, I was feeling a bit twitchy. I’d been keeping an eye on reports about the glossy ibis at Holt Fleet in Warwickshire which had been seen every day for a couple of weeks and as I’d missed this species earlier on in the year along with the buff-breasted sandpiper on my fruitless sortie north to Cambrideshire, I thought that it would be positively rude of me not to take advantage of this revenge twitch. Unfortunately the weather was rather playing up with cold conditions and snow in various parts of the country so I’d already passed up on the opportunity once because of forecast snow where I was heading. The next day the weather was very cold, grey and drizzly but there was no snow forecast until later on in the afternoon so at around 10am I ventured forth.

The journey north was uneventful apart from the great bonus of a clear sighting of a great white egret flying low over the M40 heading north east near the Warwick services. I later learned that there’d been one in the Stratford area which had moved on that morning so it was almost certainly the same bird. I’d done my usual homework before hand and therefore arrived at the spot easily enough but the map and the directions were rather unclear as to exactly how one got down to the big field by the river where the bird was located. I found myself in a small housing estate and found where the footpath should have been but there was a house in the way! I think that the path actually went through the garden but as I didn’t actually have a map with me I was a bit reluctant just to barge through in case I was wrong. Eventually I found another path down and someone directed me to a gate into the field. Just by this gate there were four rather nice lesser redpolls feeding in a silver birch tree.

Going through the gate I made my way across the field to the far end where the bird was supposed to be located. I was expecting the floods to be by the river but they turned out to be at the back of the field so I approached a little too closely and succeeding in flushing a number of mallards though the settled again further along the floods. The latter had evidently been caused by the river bursting its banks enough to flood an area with a natural depression and now that the flood waters had receded it had left a nice boggy area complete with plenty of tussocks of tall grass. In fact these tussocks were rather an obstacle as it meant it was rather difficult to see what birds were there and there was certainly no sign of any ibises. I therefore decided to retreat back to the riverside footpath and to walk along a bit further from where I could get a different viewing angle. At my second vantage point I managed to pick up the ibis working its way along the floods in and out of the tussocks. The light was abysmal and it was raining so I only obtained the crudest of record shots and video footage but it was still enough to record the great delight of what was in fact my first glossy ibis ever. A green sandpiper was also seen in the marshy area. Not wanting to get caught out by any early snow I didn’t stay too long and made my way back. I tried to find the footpath from the other end but it still seemed to go through the garden so in the end I went through a very muddy field and had to clamber over a fence to get back to the car.

A videograb record shot taken in the pouring rain with no light from a couple of hundred metres away. At least it does look like a glossy ibis!

Some record shot video footage of the bird

A nice way to round off the year with a lifer and revenge tick. I seem to have managed to get 235 on my national year list with which I’m most pleased. Amazingly I’ve had 28 lifers this year which is fantastic though of course this is largely due to the short time that I’ve been birding. Interestingly enough, a seasoned county birder with a life list of over 400 confessed to me that he was rather envious of my position with so many interesting species still to see. I’m thoroughly enjoying it all at present and wouldn’t want to spoil it by seeing too much too quickly.

National Year List 2009
235:  glossy ibis 30/12/09 Holt Fleet

With just a couple of weeks to go until the end of the year and with no vagrants having dropped into the county, the only bird left for me to chase was the elusive merlin. Regular readers will know that I’ve been trying for this bird in the county all year and indeed unsuccessfully for previous year as well (when I was doing a national year list). With one having been seen at Otmoor on each day over the weekend and also on the Monday it seemed that one was definitely in the area so on Tuesday morning I elected to get up before dawn and made my way cautiously along the icy roads to get to Otmoor. Of course I had the entire reserve to myself as no one else was stupid enough to be down there in sub-zero temperatures! There had been a small overnight snowfall and everywhere looked magical with all the trees and branches lightly dusted in white. Otmoor Lane was alive with early morning birds: pheasants along the road side and thrushes in the hedges. The Car Park Field was teeming with fieldfares with some redwing and blackbirds also thrown in. Fortunately the overnight snow had covered the ice which made walking along the paths relatively easy and there was little wind so I soon warmed up as I walked briskly along. Along Greenaways itself there was not much about with only a kestrel seen flying off from the hedgerow. The turn-off for the first screen is a good strategic spot as from there one can view Ashgrave, Big Otmoor and also Greenaways so I decided to spend a bit of time here. I walked over to the new hide to have a look around. I was just watching the winter resident stonechats flitting around near the frozen scrapes when at that point blow me if a merlin didn’t appear! It shot low over the Closes and disappeared into the hedgrow. I hadn’t expected to get it so quickly and was most pleased finally to have caught up with this bird.

Having already achieved my target, I no longer needed to spend ages scanning the fields waiting for a fly-through so instead I decided to take a quick look at the two screens. At the first screen there was one clear patch of water which was occupied by teal, wigeon and a few shoveler and gadwall. A kite flew over, just visible in the mist.  A party of bullfinches was working its way along the hedgerow towards the second screen at which there were more teal and wigeon though they took flight as I approached and headed over to the first screen pool. A small flock of meadow pipits was working its way along the frozen channels on Big Otmoor and several wrens and robins were flitting around in the hedges hungrily looking for food. Quite a few snipe were flying around over Greenaways.

A wonderfully wintery view across Greenaways from near the first screen

One advantage of the snow was that it was possible to see animal tracks that had been left there by nocturnal visitors. I managed to find a couple of prints which I think I’ve identified correctly

I think that this is a fox print

With the strong claw marks and large size I think that this is a badger

So one more tick for the county and indeed national year lists and it’s in fact a county lifer for myself. I’m not expecting any more ticks now unless something unexpected drops in but with a county year list total of 195 I’m certainly not complaining! I’ll do a review of the year for the next entry.

Oxon County Year List 2009
195:  merlin  22/12/09 Otmoor (county lifer)

National Year List 2009
234:  merlin  22/12/09 Otmoor

My fellow year lister Jason Coppock and I have been tearing our hair out with frustration recently at the lack of birds in the county. With Jason on 199 (including a pre-emptory ticking of the American Black Tern) and therefore needing one more for the magic 200 figure and myself on 192 (again with the ABT) needing one more to break the previous record we were both very keen for one more tick. It had been two weeks since the last tick and time was running out. What’s more there was a more than frustrating sighting of three velvet scoter on Farmoor last Sunday which was only reported after dark. Jason was down there at first light the next day but there was no sign of them. In the mean time I’d made a couple of trips up to Otmoor to look for the water pipit that had been seen there recently to replace the one that I’d recently removed from my list. The first time I went mid week but the workmen on the new Ashgrave hide were using some machinery which ensured that there were no birds on the scrape there. I did manage to catch up with the black redstart though as well as a few stonechats so it wasn’t a wasted journey. I decided to try again at the weekend when the workmen wouldn’t be around though there was precious little to see on the moor and no sign of the water (or indeed hardly any) pipits.

I’d still been working away on my patch on Port Meadow which has been on top form with the flooding of the Meadow. In the evenings there were usual several yellow-legged gulls and there were plenty of the usual  over-wintering waders  to look at (ruff, redshank, dunlin and black-tailed godwits). Recently the cold snap has meant that the floods have frozen over and from past experience this is usually not very productive for birding with just a few of the hardiest ducks braving the sub-zero temperatures.  Still one can get some quite nice photos of the birds on the ice so I’d been persevering. It was as well that I did because yesterday I managed to turn up a most unexpected tick: I’d arrived to find that the only birds were a huddle of teal standing in the one remaining open pool on the ice. There were a few ruff scattered in amongst them but that was about it. Given the lack of things to look at I elected to count the teal and was part way through the flock when I noticed a spotted redshank in amongst them. Now I’d long since given up on getting one of these for the year with the only other one in the county having being the elusive bird on Otmoor so it was a wonderful bonus to find one on my own patch. In fact last year at around the same time there was one which spend several days on the Meadow so it’s possible that it might even be the same bird. I was also told that someone saw what was probably a spotted redshank on Otmoor that morning so it may have been knocking about the county a bit. Let’s hope that it stays around though given the frozen conditions it’s not very likely.

A couple of digiscoped videograbs of the spotted redshank taken at dusk

The next day I was lounging around at home having just said goodbye to some friends who had stayed over when I got a call from Jason to say that he’d just found a pair of Bewick’s swans at the second screen on Otmoor. With there being no household chores holding me back I got dressed and hurried down there as quickly as possible (which was rather slowly given the icy conditions). After the rather long walk on the icy path all the way to the second screen I was rewarded with the two Bewick’s still present with four mute swans. They were in a small area of unfrozen water quite close to the screen so I was able to get some reasonable quality digiscoped images.

The Bewick’s swans by the second screen

So a couple of ticks in quick succession has meant that I am now clear of the previous record and therefore have the second highest county year list number of all time (that I know of at least). I have decided to follow Jason’s lead and count the American Black Tern tick in anticipation of a split soon though like him I will hold the Azorean Yellow-legged gull in reserve still until that is actually split. Jason of course has now achieve the fantastic total of 200 birds in a year which is approaching legendary status for county birding. With a couple of weeks left to go to the end of the year there is now the question of what is there left that I might reasonably seen. Merlin is the most likely candidate and indeed it has been seen on both days this weekend at Otmoor though usually only first thing so I’m clearly going to have to get down there early in order to connect. There are also various other possibilities though none is very likely. Anyway, I feel happy (and amazed) at the number that I’ve achieved: I’m not going to catch Jason and I’m clear of the old record so it’s a good total to settle on should nothing else turn up

Oxon County Year List 2009
192: American Black Tern 28/08/09 Farmoor Reservoir (anticipating the split)
193: Spotted Redshank    19/12/09 Port Meadow
194: Bewick’s Swan       20/12/09 Otmoor

National Year List 2009
233: American Black Tern 28/08/09 Farmoor Reservoir (anticipating the split)