Back from Hong Kong - Kittiwakes!

Seven of the fourteen Kittiwakes seen today!

I had thought that in lieu of some excellent patch bird my next blog post would be a report of my Hong Kong trip, which is still in preparations. Therefore, this will be a relatively quick one, just to cover the exceptional events of this morning!

I arrived back from Hong Kong on Sunday and have had a relatively quiet couple of days on the patch, especially as I've had quite a bit of work to catch up on. It was quite a surprise on Tuesday morning to open the curtains and find it snowing rather heavily - in these situations I can only ever think about the possibility of cold weather movement and also thought it might be quite scenic for photos, so I decided to drive to Port Meadow before heading to Wytham for work afterwards. During the journey the snow had turned to sleet and as I arrived it mostly cleared - the patch was looking very aesthetic indeed and the cold snap didn't seem to have had too much of an effect on the wintering birds, with the waterfowl and wagtails being quite lively and feeding on the flood. A few flocks of Golden Plover wheeled overhead and Snipe were particularly conspicuous - they are quite sensitive to snow/ice on the ground.

 

Pied Wagtail

Shoveler and Wigeon on the flood

I had seen reports on Birdguides of Kittiwakes at Stanford and Pitsford Reservoirs in Northamptonshire yesterday evening, so I actually had this species on my mind as I walked along to Burgess Field gate - it would be a patch tick for me after missing two in April 2023. There were a small number of Black-headed Gulls loafing on the floods but a quick check through them failed to reveal anything out of the ordinary - likewise, there didn't seem to be any Chiffchaffs to look through along the ditch, so I decided to just take a few photos and then head to work.

As I began walking back along the path a group of small gulls flew in from the east and began circling high above the floods. I thought I'd better check them and the first bird I saw through my bins, a bit below the rest of the flock, was an adult Kittiwake! I quickly raised the camera to take some record shots and one of the photos I've included below, completely unedited apart from cropping, just to show how gloomy it was.

Initial views of the Kittiwake - unedited

At this point I assumed this must be a lone adult with Black-headed Gulls or something, so I was amazed to check through the other birds in the flock and find that they were all Kittiwakes! Fourteen in total - eleven adults and three first-year birds. The birds were still circling over the floods and I could even hear them calling as I began taking more photos - the gloomy conditions weren't great for photography and the birds quite distant but I managed to get some acceptable results.

This moulting adult came quite close

I thought at one point that they were going to land but after a few minutes they swirled round and began flying north, at which point I lost them over Wolvercote.

Wytham hill in the background

The best photographic opportunities came as they headed off north as they weren't right overhead - unfortunately I never managed to get all fourteen in one frame!

Brilliant when a plan comes together. This record seems to have been part of a wider influx of Kittiwakes inland, with birds also reported in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire and London this morning. The Port Meadow flock seems to have been the largest group, although twelve were also seen at Beddington Farmlands.

These Kittiwakes become my 156th patch bird and only the second I've found in Oxfordshire, after two at Farmoor on 28th October 2020.

Geese in the snow