OCD #1, Early June 2021

Through the early summer months, blogging had to take a back seat owing to more important stuff happening in the life of this Old Caley. I still went birding when I could though, both locally and further afield. Now as we near the winter period I finally have the chance to catch up on some of those trips out. However, rather than recount them all in full grizzly detail, I've decided to just share some photos with a minimum of fuss in the shortened version of Old Caley's Diary. Welcome to OCD!

Sunday 30th May; Otmoor

Yes, I know it's the end of May and not June. Mrs Caley and I took a nice walk out on to Otmoor initially into the fog that the area is famous for and then bright sunshine. The frequent foggy conditions that Otmoor experiences was the reason why it was chosen as a site for a major supply depot for the army during the Second World War and also why the M40 motorway frequently has to be negotiated with extra care. On this morning the main draw was a Glossy Ibis that had recently settled into the Moor.

Glossy Ibis

Common Swift

Monday 31st May; Lower Heyford 

Another pleasant morning in which we walked the fields above the River Cherwell. This is a good area for farmland birds such as Corn Buntings and Skylarks. The best birds went undocumented by the camera, a Hobby, a passing Marsh Harrier and a calling Little Owl. This year we have also found breeding Yellow Wagtails along the footpaths here.

Skylark

Yellowhammer

Friday 4th June; Enslow Bridge

A flock of fifteen Cattle Egrets was discovered feeding in a field of Cattle at Enslow Bridge close to Bletchingdon on Friday lunchtime. We got our chance to go after I'd finished work and enjoyed great views in bright afternoon sunshine. Enslow Bridge is famous locally as being a stone construction over the River Cherwell that has to be repaired and a section rebuilt about every six weeks because yet another motorist has been caught out by the sharp bend at the bottom of the hill that leads down to the bridge! There is also a pub nearby called The Rock of Gibraltar, I've no idea why, an establishment that I never liked and is now closed and no doubt will become another fifty houses. I took so many photos of the Cattle Egrets, a vanguard of a county invasion, that it's difficult to pick just a few out to share. Many of the Egrets were in fine breeding condition too and they would go on to breed nearby at Blenheim Park, the first record of the species breeding in Oxfordshire.

Cattle Egret

Saturday 5th June; Ham Wall

A twitch for a lifer! A River Warbler had been found singing heartily away from a reedbed at the RSPB reserve in Somerset. I'd had a couple of near misses with River Warblers in the past so was keen to catch up with this one which was supposedly showing extremely well and singing its buzzing song, likened to the thrumming sound of a sewing machine, almost non-stop. This was an easy twitch with the bird on view as we walked up to the patch of reeds which it had chosen as a temporary home and it stayed on view and was singing pretty much continuously over the next ninety minutes. The River Warbler became the 388th bird to be added to my UK list so the magic 400 is getting ever closer!

River Warbler

After taking our fill of the Warbler, we explored a little more of the reserve, usually a welcome stopover for us on our way to or from Cornwall. Ham Wall has become famous for hosting birds, such as Little Bittern, that until recently required a trip to the Mediterranean to see. We saw three species of Egret, Bitterns, Cuckoos, Barn Owls, Marsh Harriers and lots more and we only scratched the surface on this visit. It is a superb reserve and offers a lot more with more time to delve deeper.

Common Whitethroat

Great Egret

Marsh Harrier

Sunday 6th June; Besthorpe, Nottinghamshire

The following day we were off twitching again. Not for a lifer this time but to see another reedbed dwelling Warbler that we'd only had distant views of before and the Great Reed Warbler at the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust's reserve was reportedly showing well. As on the previous day the bird was found easily, although this time it was just us and one other birder present as opposed to the hundred or so of the day before. It didn't take long for the Great Reed Warbler to reward us, as it perched prominently on reed stems and belted out its rich, loud and varied song. We stayed for just an hour but may as well have stayed for longer because its took us over three hours to get home owing to a pile-up on the A46 at Newark. Birds have to be earned sometimes!

Great Reed Warbler

Wednesday 9th & Friday 11th June; Milton Keynes

Reports of another rare Warbler species had us scuttling up to a small nature reserve on the outskirts of Milton Keynes. A local birdwatcher had discovered a singing Marsh Warbler close to a path around the reserve. We have seen a few Marsh Warblers over the past few years but any chance of seeing one of the notorious skulkers has to be taken, especially locally. We arrived in mid-afternoon on the Wednesday, mornings were supposed to be better, and found the Marsh Warbler quickly, we were definitely on a lucky streak with Warblers, although views were brief and the bird was hard to follow.

Marsh Warbler

We returned on the Friday morning and were totally on our own, some birds are just not sexy enough it seems! Again we found the Marsh Warbler easily and this time I managed some better photos. In fact there were two Marsh Warblers at the site and breeding was suspected although not proven. We saw one bird carrying food (photo above) into the patch of nettles where the birds were concentrating their efforts and the male bird apparently sang heartily in the very early mornings (too early for us) although we only heard snippets of the song and the bird was always hidden when singing.

Saturday 12th June; Martin Down, Wiltshire

A big bonus with year ticking and twitching, is that you get to go to many previously unvisited places. Martin Down is famed for Butterflies, of which lots of species breed in large numbers each years. Our first ever visit to the site though was to see an adult Rose-coloured Starling. It was a hot day and although we found the bird quickly and easily enough, the Starling was tricky to pin down and get close to. The heat haze done for any real successful photography as well. They are gorgeous birds though, decked out as they are in pink and black. Our 193rd species for the year.

Rose-coloured Starling

Other birds were on offer too, I counted hundreds of Skylarks, so many that it took me right back to my childhood when Skylarks were everywhere, and many Stonechats with recently fledged youngsters in attendance.

Skylark

Stonechat