Where's our Marsh Harrier?

Reading the Oxon bird blog today, it amazes me to see they have 4 Marsh Harrier at Otmoor, yes of course it's a huge site, big reed beds, etc, so did they breed there this year, I don't know yet, but with just one July record of this species over LFGP 27th 2012 (09:00) and then next earliest is 4th August 2007 (11:20), we should be keeping looking up from now on.

Since they do travel in rain too, we shouldn't be put off by weather like we are having today....it's Easterly winds, so in principle stuff could be out there now, shame I have to go shopping.

I'm not saying give up looking for waders and terns and I will be putting time in to look thru the tit flocks as I said before.

Very quiet again

Today I was out at 06:15 and saw next to nothing, no passage waders at all, even at Teal Scrape, or LFGP. I heard an odd warbler call next to Teal hide, but it just called 2-3 times and moved on very quickly, a bit like Chiffchaff and maybe that, but a more singular note...as with many of these things, I'll never know.

At LFGP a group of around 20 Sand Martin shot thru South, about 40+ House Martin overhead are probably all local breeders, just 2 Swift in the area now over the landfill. 2-3 distant small jobs pinging about the landfill were not Skylark, being too small, most likely Goldfinch.

I heard Grey Wagtail and saw a brief glimpse of Kingfisher dashing along the Loddon.

All eyes on Sandford

I had a lie in and when Marek called, I said "Greenshank?", "no" he said, juvenile Med Gull on the old tern island at Sandford. I went as I was, joggies and all and was there is 5 minutes, passing Marek walking to his car, he said it was walking left.

I couldn't see it so re-positioned my self to look to the Canadas and BH gulls sat in the shallows off the North reed bed, immediately finding 3 Black-tailed Godwit asleep with them. I called Marek and confirmed he missed the spring birds, so he turned back from his office bound journey.

Marek relocated the Mediterranean Gull for me, my first juvenile and our first July record, then we continued watching the Godwits until Brian arrived.

Sandford is always good in the early autumn, attracting Wigeon, Shoveler and Garganey, as well as various small Black-tailed Godwit flocks in 2006, 2011 & 2013.

For me the Godwits fit the pattern of records as described a few days ago, bang on time!

I went back again to try and get a pic of the Med and got the following

The Godwits woke up and were flushed by large gulls swooping in at 10:45, they returned after 1 minute and I added one more record shot, of what appears to be Islandica race birds

On the subject of large gulls, at least one of them was a dark juvenile, with a white upper tail and little pale in the inner primaries, suggesting Yellow-legged Gull. I may go out again later in pursuit of this or other YLG's.

So I did go back and saw juvenile Lesser Black Backed Gull and believe the bird I saw in flight earlier was the same individual. The Med was still around at 14;45 having barely moved. I also saw 1 Little-ringed Plover there and another on LFGP.

Teal scrape busy

Despite my lack of posts, I have been about on the odd occasion, just not had time to post anything.

Not that there has been much to mention, 7 Little Egret yesterday, 6 of them on Teal scrape and regular Green and Common Sandpiper there, shows that when water levels get low, this scrape comes into it's own.

Sightings of Sedge Warbler and Nightingale have brought the month up to 86, just 3 off the 3rd place for all July's.

Yes to show, are Teal, Mandarin, Mistle Thrush, Dunlin, Willow Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat and also possible are Wigeon, Ruff and even Wood Sandpiper if we are really lucky.

Wader passage hotting up

I slept in this morning again, Marek was out early seeing 2 Green Sandpiper, by lunchtime, 2 Common Sandpiper had joined them, by late lunchtime, 6 Little ringed Plover (1 juv) were there.

This LRP count is the second highest return passage number, 11 being recorded one day later on July 16th 1983, comprising 4 adults, 4 locally bred juvs and 3 more passage juvs just off the park...if we can justify counting them too?

Anyway, clearly waders are on the move, making it worth 2-3 visits a day at different times of day, I might even be getting out for the odd dusk session, hoping for more Black-tailed Godwits, or better still a Greenshank.

As I was about to leave a Raven was circling over the landfill and headed off SE before diving down East of Lea Farm itself, the first report since 6th April.

5 year species totals breakdown

I decided to do some analysis of all the species that have occurred in 5 year blocks and whilst I can't show the excel file that reveals the specifics, the numbers are as follows;

1980 - 1984 : 166 Species
1985 - 1989 : 170 Species
1990 - 1994 : 154 Species
1995 - 1999 : 147 Species
2000 - 2004 : 159 Species
2005 - 2009 : 155 Species
2010 - 2014 : 169 Species

With the new website coming very soon now, I'll try and find a away of showing the species involved, but it is fair to say from 1995 to 1999, it was either a drought, or the site wasn't comprehensively watched...I think it was the latter.

A few things stands out -

There are no passage raptors prior to 2000 (other than Osprey)

There are no records of :

Any divers since 1987
Red-necked Grebe since 1999
Shag since 1994
Whiter-fronted Goose since 2002
Brent Goose since 1993
Red Breasted Merganser since 1990
Sanderling since 1998
Little Stint since 1993
Temminck's Stint since 1993
Turtle Dove since 2002 (possibles reported heard only 2004 & 2009)
Water Pipit since 1987
Tree Pipit since 1989 (except for 2011 & 2014 autumn records)
Ring Ouzel since 1988
Marsh Tit since 1990 (I doubt the 1998 & 1992 records as both are in May)
Willow Tit since 1990 (I doubt the 1995 & 1995 records in June & July)
Tree Sparrow since 1988
Corn Bunting since 2003 (dubious records claimed April 1999 & June 1998, genuine records 1985 & 1983)

Of sad note there are only 3 records of Yellowhammer since 2005.

The modern species additional species -

Bittern (regularly from 1995, then every year since 2002)
Little Egret records began 2000 (1st record 1996)
Red Kite records began 2001
Marsh Harrier began 2000

Peregrine began 1998 (annual since 2003)

Barn Owl records began 2001 (1st & 2nd records 1981 & 1990)

Ring-necked Parakeet records began 2002
Cetti's Warbler annual from 2003 (1st & 2nd records 1984 & 1992)
Raven annual from 2005

There are a few more things to talk about another time

July Black-tailed Godwit

After getting Geoff's yesterday call about 2 Black-tailed Godwit flying over LFGP yesterday, I looked at recent records and feel the following is of interest.

There are now 3 July 14th Black-tailed Godwit records;

1/2006 on Sandford
1/2013 on LFGP
2/2015 over LFGP

If you then show the other July records;

1/7th & 8th 2008 - Tern scrape
2/17th 2010 - LFGP
1/13th & 1/15th 2011 - Sandford & LFGP respectively
7/1st & 3/25th 2013 - LFGP
1/2nd & 1/23rd 2014 - Tern scrape & LFGP respectively

As there are no July records prior to 2006, it appears highly likely that LFGP attracts them in, but I would also suggest there are waves/date windows they are occurring around, with not a great deal of date ranges between.

1st wave around the 1st/2nd July (+ 1/28th June 2011 & 2008 records)
2nd wave around 13th to 17th (+ up to a week later, perhaps constituting a 3rd wave around 23rd to 25th?)

August brings further waves 10th to 14th, then 23rd onward into September.

Now for us who do the odd early morning, it is fair to say that does not guarantee you will see, them as a several records are mid afternoon, or early evening.