Birding in and around Banbury has started to get more interesting with the onset of autumn migration, especially the arrival of good numbers of gulls and a "trickling" of waders through our area en route to more southerly coastlines. Yesterday evening I was very pleasantly surprised to find an adult Black-tailed Godwit wading along the concrete shoreline of Grimsbury Reservoir. This looked to be an bird of the Icelandic race - shorter bill and legs than the race that breeds across continental Europe. This bird could be close to it's wintering home - many Icelandic birds spend the winter along the south coast of England.
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| Black-tailed Godwit |
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| Black-tailed Godwit |
In the past week or so both an adult and a juvenile Mediterranean Gulls have visited the reservoir - I was lucky enough to connect with the adult in the early evening as it joined in a large pre-roost gathering of gulls on the roof of the water treatment works.
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| Mediterranean Gull (centre facing right) |
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| Mediterranean Gull (centre facing right) |
Rarely do I see a new bird species for the "garden list" these days, so it was very exciting to draw open the curtains this morning to find a female Common Redstart flitting about around the bottom of our plum tree. I managed to get a record shot before it moved up the garden path, flicking it tail all the way, then disappearing into our neighbour's garden.
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| early morning Redstart |
Swallows have been gathering on the wires in Upper Wardington for the past few days - 47 this morning the highest count so far. A sure sign that summer is about to give way to autumn.
Finally, some nice shots of birds seen early morning on Monday as I was walking around the reservoir .
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| Wren (juvenile) |
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| Blackcap |
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| Garden Warbler |
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