Sunday 25th February

There's been a bit of an improvement with the birding on the Meadow this week. At the start of the week I did the monthly winter WeBS count survey. I soon found the first OYSTERCATCHER of the year and since then there have been at least two (and one day three) each day. There have also been a REDSHANK or two about most days as well as a few Golden Plover. The highlight of the survey itself was a fly-over heard-only GREEN SANDPIPER. This is normally quite a hard bird to get on the Meadow but fortunately they have quite a distinctive flight call and I heard it clearly enough even if I never saw it. There were three SHELDUCK on the floods yesterday - the first for a couple of weeks now.

At the end of the week Thomas Miller managed to find another ICELAND GULL in the roost which looked like a different bird from last time. Talking of the gull roost, numbers of large gulls have improved noticeably this week: I think that the floods in the fields have subsided so we're back to more traditional roosting locations now.

A phone-scoped picture of the Iceland Gull courtesy of Thomas Miller

For those who are interested in lots of numbers, the full WeBS count totals were:

Oystercatcher
Green Sandpiper: heard-only fly-over.
3 Redshank
16 Golden Plover
96 Lapwing
5 Snipe

371 Teal
556 Wigeon
25 Mallard
10 Moorhen
2 Canada Geese
Greylag Geese (not counted as partially obscured)
Grey Heron

368 Black-headed Gull
29 Lesser Black-backed Gull
4 Herring Gull
Common Gull

With the bitterly cold snap for most of the coming week the floods may well be frozen so there might not be much going on. However, it is presently forecast to improve again towards the end of the week.

Sunday 18th February - Great White Egret

Apologies for the lack of posts but I've been away for a week on holiday. To be honest there's not been a great deal of interest to blog about anyway. Over the last few weeks the gull roost has rather fizzled out with only the occasional YELLOW-LEGGED GULL as reward for the effort of checking it out. Over at Farmoor, apparently they're getting the same reduction in numbers though they are starting to get the first Mediterranean Gulls coming through now so that's probably going to be the new target gull for the coming weeks ahead.

On the wader front I've not heard any news but on Saturday I did find four REDSHANK and about 25 Golden Plover in with the 30 or so Lapwing. As far as ducks are concerned, there are a few lingering PINTAIL and a handful of GOOSANDER are still coming in to roost in the evening.

The highlight since my last posting was a brief sighting of a GREAT WHITE EGRET that Nicola Devine saw fly over the Trap Grounds last Monday early afternoon. We had a brief sighting of this species last year up in Wolvercote and that proved to be the Port Meadow Bird of the Year so it's nice to get a good bird on the list so early in the year.

Here's a randon photo of a Great White Egret in flight that I found on the internet (c) original photographer

On the year listing front Steve Goddard reported a SKYLARK up at the Wolvercote end of the Meadow so that now leaves the following birds that we might expect:

Brambling
Curlew,
Oystercatcher
Dunlin
Lesser Redpoll
Jack Snipe

Saturday 3rd February

So we're into February already, often quite a slow month on the birding calendar with all the excitement of new year ticks more or less died down and yet no migrants to look forward to for another month at least. For this last week there hasn't been much to report: the gull roost has been a rather modest affair with just one or two YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS each evening worthy of note. There hasn't been much change on the wildfowl and wader front either though on Friday I did manage to find the first BLACK-TAILED GODWIT of the year tucked up asleep in amongst the Lapwing flock. The pair of SHELDUCK did visit the floods one day this week, we've a handful of PINTAIL with us still and we're still getting modest counts of GOOSANDER roosting with us each evening.

The over-wintering Stonechat is still around down by the bridge neat the boat moorings

After my posting of the wanted list for the year list last week I have had a few sightings reported to me with Coot and TUFTED DUCK both found by Ian Curtis as predicted at Wolvercote. A flock of 8 SNIPE were seen by Thomas Miller on the floods one day recently and BUZZARD was reported by both Mary MacDougall in Burgess Field and Nicola Devine over the Trap Grounds. So below is a list of the remaining birds that I might expect at this time of year.

Brambling
Curlew
Dunlin
Skylark
Oystercatcher
Lesser Redpoll

The Winter Heliotrope has been in flower in the Trap Grounds for some time now