Back to blogging and patch update

Port Meadow stalwart Adam Hartley photographing a rainbow on a birdless morning

With the slow demise of Twitter and procrastinating over the inevitable move to Bluesky I've posted very little on social media recently - yet I've still found myself wanting to write about birding. I'd almost forgotten about the existence of this blog (which began as bit of a Covid lockdown project) which is a shame as its longer format is perfect for patch updates rather than just the odd tweet with a photo. We already have the Port Meadow blog but I've always been slightly hesitant to post on there - for one it's Adam's creation, and his blogging style is rather different to mine, but also I'd prefer to write mostly about birds that I've seen and found personally (and sometimes go into substantial detail about these birds). Combined with wanting to occasionally report on trips away from Port Meadow, the time seems ripe for returning to this blog, and hence I'll try and commit to posting semi-regularly, perhaps two or three times a month depending on whether there's actually some birds to write about.

Until mid-September I was away from Oxford, having spent the summer after handing in my DPhil thesis doing various nice bird-related things - short trips abroad to Lithuania (helping to catch and ring Greenish Warblers for a friend's project) and Germany (ringing and GPS tagging juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls). Following this I stayed at Portland and Copeland in late August/early September, and whilst getting stuck into observatory life and experiencing some fantastic days of overhead migration, seawatching and ringing, I saw very little in the way of good birds, other than some expected early autumn scarcities (Wryneck and Great/Cory's Shearwaters on Portland, and a couple of Sabine's Gulls on Copeland).

Wryneck, Portland Bill - much more elusive than this photo suggests!

After a month spent at these birding hotspots (I say this - can Copeland really be counted as a birding hotspot?) it was a brutal return to the realities of Oxon birding, where most days in the field end with seeing nothing at all! My ears had clearly been tuned in a bit given that I picked up a flyover Tree Pipit heading south over Otmoor on 6th September, which I was pleased with as they remain relatively uncommon as a passage migrant in Oxfordshire. When I got back Port Meadow had yet to flood for the winter, and was still dry grassland - hence my efforts were focused mainly on ringing in Burgess field, with a couple of days catching good numbers of migrants (mostly Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and Meadow Pipits). Oddities included a Reed Warbler (surprisingly scarce on the patch although this is the second caught by the ringing group this year) and a "capless" Blackcap on 18th September, which has already done the rounds of social media so I won't go into further detail other than including a photo of it here - it seems to be a known aberration that can occasionally occur.

Note the incomplete eye-ring and greater covert break - the bird also had very plain undertail coverts

With the lack of a gull roost on Port Meadow I decided to make a few trips to Farmoor Reservoir on nice evenings - visibility and lack of wind are very important when the birds are hundreds of metres away. On 22nd September I saw a Black Tern and Little Gull with Ben Sheldon as well as one or two Caspian Gulls regularly in the roost over the couple of weeks. Three Great White Egrets circling the northern basin (F1) and a Rock Pipit on 29th September were also notable. Wader passage for me was limited to a few Dunlin, Ringed Plovers and Common Sandpipers. 

This 1cy Caspian Gull has been hanging round Farmoor quite a lot during the day, affording some fantastic photographic opportunities

Heavy rain at the end of September caused a rapid rise in water levels and the meadow went from bone dry to "lake mode" in little over a week - probably the earliest it has ever flooded to this extent in the eight years that I've been going there. The floods immediately attracted waterfowl, gulls and a couple of Great White Egrets. When the floods are this large viewing from Burgess Field gate is very difficult as the birds are hundreds of metres away, so I usually cycle along the Thames path and watch from the other side of the river - which also has the advantage of having the light behind you in the evening.

From this...

...to this, in about a week

1st October looked like good conditions for the roost so I headed down from Godstow and began waiting for gulls to fly into on the flood - I had arrived a bit early.  At around 18:20 I noticed a very dark 2cy Lesser Black-backed Gull sitting directly opposite me on the water - alarm bells began ringing as it looked perfect for a Baltic Gull! The mantle had a mix of very dark adult-type feathers and worn second-generation feathers giving it a "scaly" appearance which I've come to associate with fuscus and some intermedius - combined with the plain tertials, unstreaked white head and yellow bill with black tip it looked almost exactly like the birds that I had seen in 2021 at Appleford. I put the news out as a probable and was just getting my phone into position to digiscope it when it flew - slight panic as I reoriented the scope but then got a good view of an almost pure white underwing, and, crucially, a set of wing feathers that had obviously been replaced months ago - the pale tips to the secondaries looked very tatty and compared with the other Lesser Black-backed Gulls the primaries were clearly more worn. It eventually settled with other gulls on an "island" at the north end of the flood and I was able to take some ropey digiscoped images. Sadly the bird flew before Adam arrived - although I managed to pick out a 1cy Caspian Gull at dusk which was a minor consolation.

Collage of digiscoped images in the gloom

My main concern was whether fuscus could be identified at all this late in the year, since most other 2cy Lesser Black-backed Gulls would have completed their primary moult and hence the criteria used to easily separate them in spring and summer are less applicable. However, since many fuscus replace their juvenile primaries, secondaries and rectrices on the wintering grounds, these second-generation feathers will be much older than the equivalent feathers on graellsii/intermedius, as these would have only just been replaced over summer. I am happy that I got good enough views to assess this feature and I think it is also visible in the photos of the open wing. The absolute clincher would be seeing two, or even three generations of primaries - a moult pattern unknown in "western" Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but shown by some of the most advanced fuscus. It was unclear from the photos and from viewing in the field whether this was the case, as the moult limit in the inner primaries can be very subtle and is suspended prior to migration, so there are no feather gaps in the wing to look for.

Overall, having shown photos to Ian Lewington and then circulating them on Twitter, the feedback has been positive - whether it is worth submitting to BBRC is a different matter. For me, finally getting one on Port Meadow has been a real grip back after being unable to clinch what was almost certainly a distant flyover on 3rd June - Ian also had a 2cy fuscus at Didcot on 22nd August which is possibly a different bird from the extent of tertial wear. 

Near misses for me this year - a fuscus seen by Ian Lewington at Didcot whilst I was at Portland and a probable flyover I had on Port Meadow in June

This autumn has seen one of the best arrivals of Yellow-browed Warblers in the last few years, particularly inland, and with the discovery of two birds in Oxfordshire already (one at Lye Valley and another at Farmoor Reservoir) I had high hopes for the patch. On 9th October I was walking back from a fairly mediocre solo ringing session when I heard what I thought was a Yellow-browed Warbler call coming from somewhere in the allotments - although I wasn't 100% sure over the rabble of dog walkers coming along the path. Stopping just outside Burgess Field gate, I waited for perhaps another 10 seconds before hearing a single call again, quite clear but fairly distant. Unfortunately I had to hurry off for a work commitment so couldn't stay to look for it any longer, so I put the news out and Adam was out looking for it after lunch to no avail. I was back down in the evening for the roost and also had no luck (although I did find a 1cy Mediterranean Gull). I had initially urged some caution with regards to adding it to the year list based off of a brief heard-only record, and I think my nervousness was exacerbated by the fact that this would be a patch tick - having missed a widely-twitched bird in the Trap Grounds in September 2022. However, I eventually had some sense talked into me by Adam in that this was a perfectly acceptable record even without visual validation, so I'm happy to include it as a patch tick, albeit quite an unsatisfying one!

For the last few years parts of the southern end of the meadow have been left un-mowed, which this year have attracted up to three Stonechats. Formerly a passage migrant through Burgess Field in October, we've recently been getting some overwintering in this area. I also heard a Cetti's Warbler singing from the ditch next to Walton Well car park on 17th October which is the first I've actually recorded on meadow itself, although it was dubiously on my patch list before from birds along the Castle Mill stream and at King's Lock.

Phil Barnett found a Whooper Swan on the morning of the 22nd October, a less than annual patch bird that I was keen to catch up with so I hurried down in my lunch break and met Adam and Phil on the meadow. The bird was very distant, feeding on the grass with geese on the opposite shoreline - a flock which bizarrely also included a feral Ross' Goose, another species for the Port Meadow "plastic" list!

Whooper Swan from the riverbank - it ended up staying for three days

Ross' Goose - this bird has been around the county for a while and usually hangs out at Otmoor

We were walking back towards Walton Well Street and examining some Stonechats when I heard the distinctive short, buzzy call of a Rock/Water Pipit overheard - the bird had come up from the grass where some Meadow Pipits were feeding and flown north over the floods. I had a brief and distant view of it through bins which didn't reveal much except that it looked grey and somewhat clean underneath - unfortunately Adam and Phil didn't get onto the bird. I can't pretend that I would be able to distinguish the calls of Rock and Water Pipit with any reliability so it will have to be left as that species pair. I have seen a Water Pipit on the patch before (a bird found by Phil in October 2022) but Rock Pipit would be a patch tick for me, so slightly gutted - might still be time left this autumn to get another.

Aside from the swan, the only other interesting wildfowl specimen has been this strange duck which after a bit of head scratching seems to be a Wigeon x Gadwall hybrid

A return visit to Farmoor that evening with Ben and visiting birder Milosz Cousens produced one of the best roosts I've experienced at the reservoir - four Caspian Gulls (two 2cy, a 4cy and an adult), over twenty Yellow-legged Gulls, and a 2cy Mediterranean Gull . Three of the Caspian Gulls were showing superbly on the smaller reservoir, where the gulls typically roost much closer to the causeway, so we got some fantastic views. A Rock Pipit was calling along the causeway and a Peregrine flew through and buzzed the gulls in the near darkness just as we were leaving.

On 25th October I had an unexpected patch tick in the form of a flyover Yellowhammer - the first vismig highlight of the autumn. I confess that upon initially hearing it I couldn't place the rather anonymous "tsit" flight call (despite being a bit out of context there was no excuse really, given that for the last couple of years I've been involved with surveying the winter finch/bunting feeding stations in the Cotswolds which regularly attract hundreds of Yellowhammers) - however as it got closer I realised that the call was coming from a large bunting-shaped bird flying east quite high over the southern end of the meadow, at which point the penny dropped. Despite Yellowhammers wintering barely a mile or two away, this is only the second recent record for the patch following another flyover seen by Nick Boyd on 11th October 2020 - some discussion with Mick Cunningham seems to indicate that they are relatively uncommon on vismig even in areas where they breed/winter nearby.

One of the regular Great White Egrets

Fuelled by the promise of good vismig I continued with my morning walks - in the past I've usually visited in the evenings for the roost, but I've realised that the best chance of adding to my patch list is probably chance flyovers in the mornings - birds like Ring Ouzel, Crossbill, and Hawfinch to name a few. The latter was something that I was particularly hoping for as vismiggers across the country were reporting a modest influx. On 28th October I headed out very early (the clocks had just gone back), arriving in the pre dawn gloom. Initially the conditions didn't seem promising, with few birds going over - a couple of Siskin, a Redpoll, and two Black-tailed Godwits circling the floods. I was standing by Burgess Field gate trying to decide whether it was worth persevering when I heard a metallic "srrriii" call somewhere above me - brain whirred into gear, I hadn't heard them for quite a few years but knew it had to be a Hawfinch, began madly looking around for it - then it emerged from above the Burgess Field tree line, surprisingly low, barely ten metres above me! Had phenomenal views right over my head as it powered south-west, an absolutely fantastic patch tick. I gave it another half an hour but by this point was getting quite cold so decided to head into town to start work for the day. Just as I was walking back I spotted two large finches flying over the floods - a quick check with bins and yes, also Hawfinches, much higher up and apparently silent. Three in one morning far exceeded my expectations, and next time I vowed to bring a camera - I had just bought a new mirrorless Olympus setup (switching over from a Canon 7D Mark II) and was quite keen to test it.

The report of Hawfinches even managed to tempt Adam out the next couple of mornings and sure enough on 1st November we were standing photographing an adult Mediterranean Gull that briefly dropped onto the floods when I once again heard the unmistakeable call of a Hawfinch - shortly drowned out by me yelling "hawfinch!!!" and Adam yelling "where???". I saw a speck bombing over us so swung the camera up and hoped that it would lock on - in the couple seconds it was visible I took 66 photos using the pre-capture function! Adam thankfully had got onto the bird, his second patch Hawfinch after seeing some with Ollie over Burgess Field way back in 2020. My elation turned to horror when examining the photos on the camera - I had obviously failed to adjust the exposure compensation from shooting a white bird against the dark floods to a dark bird against the white sky, and hence all 66 photos were just of black blobs! Clearly a skill issue with the new camera, although shooting in RAW meant that I was able to recover a surprising amount of detail and whilst the photo will win no prizes it's a serviceable record shot - I never thought I would be able to get photos of flyovers like this on Port Meadow.

Hawfinch photo straight out of the camera...

...and the edited record shot!

Since the Hawfinches the patch has been relatively quiet, although the floods have pulled in a few waders - a Curlew, low numbers of Dunlin, a couple of Redshank and a Ruff. In previous autumns the Golden Plover flock has attracted two American Golden Plovers (before my time sadly), Pectoral Sandpiper and Dotterel in 2021, and regular Grey Plovers, so plenty of potential at this time of year.

Record short of a distant Curlew on 5th November - impressed with the cropping potential of the Olympus

A misty morning - four Dunlin circling with the Golden Plover flock

I'll be away from Oxford next week for a Hong Kong trip - always an uneasy feeling leaving the patch for an extended period of time, but hopefully the birding will make up for that. I anticipate that the next blog post will be a trip report, and one of the main aims of the trip will be photography.