Old Caley's Diary: Birding can be FARMOOR fun in the rain! 28-29th April 2018

See what I did there?!

Weekends these days always seem to be accompanied by inclement weather! But at least its only us that get irritated by it. The birds just carry on with their lives and do what birds must do. It's not pleasant birding in wind and rain and the photography is more difficult but quite often surprises occur when the elements are at their worst. Saturday morning was frankly, quite horrible with persistent light rain and drizzle and with a very cold wind blowing. So the only place to be then was that most windswept, bleak and unforgiving place, Farmoor reservoir!

Having parked up and (not) enjoyed watching the dreich (love that Scottish word) waft over the windscreen, we togged up and made our way up to the reservoir. The sight that greeted us was astounding. There were literally thousands upon thousands of swifts, swallows, house and sand martins all feeding low over the water. They carpeted both basins and resembled the swarm of flies that so annoyed us a few weeks back. The mass of birds were obviously newly arrived and answered the question as to where all the swallows and swifts were this year since most of them were here! Or so it seemed. My best estimate would be over 3000 swallows, 2500 house martins and 2500 sand martins with maybe as many as a 1000 swifts. But to be honest it was impossible to count them and that may be a crazy overestimation! The birds were literally everywhere you looked. I have never seen so many in one place! I just wish I could have got a wide angle photo to document the scene but the 400mm prime just doesn't do it justice.

As we walked along the causeway many birds and particularly the swifts were tearing up and down in pursuit of nourishment. I've no idea what they were catching in such cold conditions since I couldn't see any flies of any description. Often there would be a whoosh of air as a swift passed just inches away from your head! One swift managed to navigate right between myself and Mrs Caley and we were only a couple of feet apart! In teenager speak; it was a totally awesome experience. I set about trying to capture some of the swifts but it was very tricky to say the least not being helped by the rain and poor light.

swifts (by name and by nature!)

Swallows and martins were somewhat easier to track and observe since they fly much more slowly compared to the swifts but despite much searching I couldn't find any of the much coveted red-rumped swallows or anything out of the ordinary.

swallows

house martin

Also along the causeway were a pair of dunlin and a couple of common sandpiper. I picked up a white wagtail but it flew before I could get an image. Yellow wagtails were also still present including the "Channel" wagtail although they were put to flight by a jogger before I could get close enough.

dunlin

We made our way to Shrike Meadow and to see if we could locate the grasshopper warbler that has been present for a week or so. I must admit that I had never before been in the hide there! It overlooks the meadow and a small pool which housed a returning reed warbler as well as sedge warbler. A cuckoo passed over and across to a large oak tree at the northern side where it alighted and called continuously. Then the distinctive reeling of the gropper (shortened version of the name grasshopper warbler) could be heard away to the right of the hide but I couldn't locate the bird. Groppers along with nightingales are one of the birds that I most eagerly await for each spring and have that wow factor even though they are a plain and nondescript looking species. But what they lack in looks they make up for in that charismatic and characteristic reeling song which they broadcast with mouth wide open whilst perching in a bush or on a reed or grass stem. They can be very difficult to pin down because they are also ventriloquists par excellence and can fool you into thinking they are somewhere where they are not. I decided that the gropper must be singing from the adjacent hedgerow so we made our way along it. The reeling continued but it was apparent that the bird was out in the grassy meadow and not in the hedge. Luckily Thames Water have left a gap in the bushes through which you can view the northern section of the meadow. On reaching this gap we both clocked the gropper immediately perched in a clump of rough grasses about 50 yards away. The song though sounded as if it was still coming from our right! The bird was very active and changed its song perch frequently but kept up the performance almost continually. After about 10 minutes it finally settled a bit closer and allowed some record shots to be taken despite the now quite heavy rain. Scope views were somewhat better!

grasshopper warbler

Then the fun really started with a text message at 11:55 from Badger informing that 2 great skuas (or bonxies) had been seen over Farmoor 1! For once we were in the right place at the right time so we left the gropper to it and hurried back up to the reservoir. The reservoir was now shrouded in mist and visibility had deteriorated somewhat but there was no mistaking the skuas. Great skuas are big, as large as buzzards, and are much more vicious, preying on seabirds and their fish dinners. The fact that these two were so far inland was a major surprise but I guess it goes to show that birds are flying around high up above the country all the time and presumably these had been "grounded" by the rain. They flew across over Farmoor 2 and disappeared into the mist. That I thought was that and we thanked our lucky stars that we'd been able to connect. Although we've seen lots of bonxies in Scotland and elsewhere around the coast in England these were a county tick (must actually write that list up one day) having missed the previous ones at Farmoor and Otmoor.

great skuas (in the mist)

We returned to the gropper but that had fell silent so we made our way back to the on site cafe for some nourishment of our own. I then noticed the skuas sat out on F2 so that hadn't left after all but as per the Farmoor conundrum they seemed to be right out in the middle so close views wouldn't be possible.

skuas (at rest on F2)

At 14:00 the skuas took to the air, circled the reservoirs a few times while gaining height and then departed to the west at 14:12. Just over a two hour stopover and not quite long enough for many birders who turned up just too late!

bonxies away!

In tandem with Jim we noticed many swallows had taken to settling on the embankment walls. They must have been exhausted as well as confused and were probably wondering why they had bothered coming back to Blighty and such awful conditions so soon!

tired swallows (thanks to Jim for use of photo)

Sunday morning, weather wise, was much the same with drizzle and an even colder wind that had turned to the north. There were still many hirundines and swifts over the water but in fewer numbers than the day before. The stronger wind actually made gaining photos easier since it slowed the birds right up if they tried to fly into it so I managed slightly better images this time.

swifts

house martin

sand martin and swallows

swift (with eye on the fly!)

swallows

The 3 dunlin were still present and were more confiding too posing for some nice shots. Of the 3 one was noticeably larger than the others and had grey edges to the back feathers so I think was of the race "alpina" which breeds in Scandinavia and Siberia rather than our normally encountered "schinzii". The size difference is certainly apparent in some of the images below.

dunlin "schinzii"

dunlin "schinzii" front, "alpina" behind

dunlin "alpina"

An oystercatcher flew over and a common sandpiper was suitably flighty further along the causeway. Yellow wagtails were still foraging along the edge of F2 but there was no sign of the "Channel" or white cousins (although undoubtedly still around). Arctic terns were still present but sadly didn't come as close in as the common terns.