Good day at Farmoor

Arctic Tern, Farmoor reservoir

Wednesday 23rd April looked like a promising day for birding. The brisk easterly wind and rain predicted throughout the morning are classic conditions for overland passage, particularly of waders and terns. I had been gripped by the quality of birding at the big Midlands reservoirs (e.g. Belvide and Draycote) over the past few days, with Oxfordshire having seemingly missed out on all of the action. With early reports of Arctic Tern movement from Staines I was hopeful that this weather front would finally produce some good inland birding in the county.

I arrived at Farmoor in the drizzle just after 8am, and as I walked past the cafe I saw a few hirundines and two Common Terns flying over the causway. Peering through the murk across F1 I could just about make out a large flock of terns flying around in the northwest corner of the reservoir. At least some of these were Arctics from the flight style, although I was struggling to see any details - I had to get closer.

Initial views of the first Arctic Tern flock

A very wet Rock Pipit briefly materialised as I hurried along the causeway - a year tick for me.

Upon reaching the hide I briefly took shelter from the rain and started looking through the distant flock - most of the birds appeared to be Arctic Terns (at least 30) but there were also three or four Common Terns, although these seemed not to be associating too closely with the Arctics. Counting the terns from next to the hide, I saw a second large flock drop out of the sky and fly right past me onto F2 - another 45 Arctic Terns! Absolutely fantastic to see inland, and really exceptional numbers for Oxfordshire. I was glad that my hunch with the weather had finally been correct - I guess a stopped clock is right twice a day.

At this point I had to go to an opticians appointment - luckily it was in Botley, only ten minutes away, so I just about managed to tear myself away from the action and headed back to the car park, meeting Dave Lowe and Conor MacKenzie as they arrived. The rain was forecast to continue for much of the morning so I hoped that everything would stay put and indeed that more birds would be brought down. I anxiously waited out the next hour getting trialling some contact lenses before returning to the reservoir at around 10:30. Luckily, it seemed that I hadn't missed anything although the number of birders standing on the causeway had grown considerably!

My first Swifts of the year screeched overhead as I arrived back at the hide. The light had improved considerably and the terns were much closer than before, so I began taking some photos. Most of the shots had white and grey birds against an equally dull grey background but I managed to get a couple where the subject was isolated against the green trees bordering the reservoir. A bit tricky with the changing backgrounds and gloomy lighting, but I can't complain - easily the best photos of Arctic Terns I have ever taken inland.

As I was watching the Arctic Terns another 20 or so flew straight over F2 very high up, powering into the headwind. With around 70 already on F2 and another 30 on F1, this brought the day's total to at least 120 individuals. Who knows how much turnover there actually was throughout the morning!

High-flying flock of Arctic Terns

A surge of activity amongst the assembled birders indicated that something else had just been found - walking along the causeway to join them, I saw that a Grey Plover had pitched down and was feeding along the debris at the reservoir edge. It was flushed several times throughout the morning, each time flying high northeast, but always ended up circling round and coming back to the causeway.

I was vaguely aware of someone shouting whilst I was photographing the Grey Plover although it was only when I looked up that I realised that Dave was waving frantically at me - panic! I glanced over the reservoir and couldn't see what they were looking at. Running back down the causeway, the bird of the day was revealed - a fantastic Little Tern which Dave had picked out as it flew in to join the Arctics.

Dunlin and Ringed Plover were arriving throughout the morning, including a fantastic flock of 15 Dunlin that made several close passes. A few Yellow Wagtails and a White Wagtail also dropped in.

Whimbrels occasionally flew over (I think I counted four throughout the morning, although others had more). Again a classic time of year for this species.

Whimbrel low over the water, mobbed by a Herring Gull

These two Bar-tailed Godwits were perhaps my favourite wader sighting of the morning. They went straight through northeast - two were also seen at Otmoor later on, which I suspect were the same birds.

As the rain stopped and the weather improved, the flocks of Arctic Terns began to rise higher and depart. By lunchtime, only around 20 were left, along with the Little Tern. At this point, I wasn't seeing much more in terms of newly arrived birds so decided to go and do some work.

Having missed the "Arctic Skua day" at Farmoor last September (due to being on Portland), it was good to finally get in on one of those rare occasions where birds were just piling through and dropping out of the sky. Certainly one of the best days of county birding that I've ever had.

Arctic Terns departing Farmoor and continuing on with their migration

Small improvements

The first Yellow Wagtail of the year flycatching next to the flood

A minor uptick in proceedings compared to the past couple of weeks. The anticipated Portland weekender started nicely with Jodie's Dotterel, which had relocated to Ferrybridge overnight. The bird was quite tame, as they often are, and performed very well for the hordes of photographers lined up along the beach.

The rest of the trip, however, failed to produce much in terms of birds - seawatching was very slow, and apart from a couple of Wheatears there was little on the land either. Ringing was quiet in the clear conditions, with a few Firecrests in the nets, most of which had already been ringed in the preceding days. There were finally some new arrivals in on the last day with a little pulse of warblers through the garden - it is always a joy to see Willow Warblers in the hand.

Sunrise from the Obs garden

Female Firecrest

Willow Warbler

Other than that I managed to see the Long-tailed Duck in Portland Harbour and twitched a Ring Ouzel at Barleycrates on the way back - both birds that I've not seen for a while. The birding there seems to have been improving steadily since I left!

View over Chesil from the Verne

Back on patch the flood is now looking rather unhealthy after a spell of unseasonably warm and dry weather. Duck and gull numbers are much reduced, although the muddy margins are still pulling in waders - particularly Little Ringed Plovers and Redshanks.

3cy Yellow-legged Gull

Shelduck pair - still a daily feature on the patch, with up to six present

I suspect these will be the last Pintails until the winter

The end of the month produced a few more patch year ticks - on 27th March the first House Martins returned, whilst a lone Ringed Plover was quickly followed by five more the next day. On 28th March I also heard a singing Willow Warbler in the ditch bordering the allotments, and they've been trickling through the hedgerows in low numbers since then.

Part of a flock of five Ringed Plovers one morning

Willow Warbler song is surely one of the best sounds of spring!

Perhaps the most interesting new arrival has been this Ruff, found by Matthew on 3rd April. It was associating with a flock of 11 Redshanks and stayed a couple of days. Ruff used to be fairly regular on the meadow in both winter and spring, although I only saw one last year - so this is a good addition both to the patch and county year list.

Whilst I was watching the Ruff, the first Yellow Wagtail of the year flew in. As is almost always the case, it was a stunning male - I find that female types tend to move through slightly later. The odd White Wagtail is still around although numbers of Wagtails in general are way down on what they were 2-3 weeks ago - I assume the majority (including the Pied Wagtails) were migrants and in this weather most have just gone straight through.

Male White Wagtail in strong sunlight

Aside from these, I've had another Green Sandpiper (a heard-only flyover), a Redpoll and a few more sightings of the Siberian Chiffchaff, which is still singing and now looking pretty smart - a shame that I've not managed to get a photo of it since it's completed its moult. I assume that it'll be off to its breeding grounds soon.

The Peregrines are now being seen less frequently, with the adult pair presumably on eggs. The 2cy individual is still hunting over the flood occasionally and showed very well on 4th April, flushing all the ducks and then being mobbed by carrion crows at close range.

From this series I was finally able to get some photographs which clearly show the Darvic ring code - it reads "XSR", and was ringed on 27th May 2024 at St Alban's Cathedral, Hertfordshire. Peregrines have bred on the cathedral since 2022 - some sad news from that pair in the last few days detailed here.

On 5th April, I was surprised to find a group of Little Ringed Plovers feeding very close to the path on a few temporary puddles at the south end of the flood, providing my best ever photo opportunities for this species. Lying in the mud, I managed to get reasonably close and then used the 2x extender to fill the frame with as much of the bird as possible. I am quite pleased with my images. If I were being critical, it was a shame that I couldn't get close enough to produce a nice, smooth out-of-focus background and foreground. This is one of the few instances so far where I've been left wondering what the result would have been like with a full frame camera and fast prime. The Micro 4/3 system is generally well-suited to my style of photography (essentially getting a somewhat artistic, sharp record shot, which I can then frame by cropping massively) - and it's only when I try something like this, which is more like conventional bird photography, that I begin struggling a bit with producing the desired effect.

The only other bird to report has been another Marsh Harrier on 8th April, flying high east into the wind and clearly a migrant . Only my third patch record and a very nice-looking male. Each day on patch currently feels like a raptor movement day and I really hope to get Osprey in the next week - there have already been three seen over Farmoor, all flying east, and each time I have been left thinking that if I had been on the Meadow I would have probably intercepted them!

Barely visible to the naked eye, as are many migrant raptors in these conditions - always worth just scanning the sky with bins

Despite a bit of an improvement these are still only the most expected of migrants, in the smallest of numbers. The high-pressure system of northeasterlies we've got over us at the moment is doing no favours for birding other than the onslaught of Little Gulls at seemingly every other site nearby, and the flood is rapidly shrinking. I doubt it will last more than a couple of weeks, and with no rain predicted I reckon that's basically Port Meadow done for this season. Bar a major surprise, it's hard to shake the feeling that this has been the worst late winter/spring period I've ever had on here - definitely time for a break after the waters dry up, and maybe refocusing on a different area for a while.

Many would call this beautiful weather but I certainly don't want to be out birding in these conditions - totally bleak