Monday 17 April 2017

Banburyshire and beyond: spring in full swing

April is a great month to be out in the field, which can make it even harder to keep up with the blogging!  Our resident birds are busy nesting, and some are already raising young.  And our migrants are arriving in ever greater numbers, returning to their favoured haunts to breed or just passing through on their journey north.  Many flowers and trees are looking their best too - meadows full of fritillaries and cowslips, copses and hedgerows bursting with cherry and crab apple blossom.  I've been able to spend a good amount of time out and about, mostly in the local area but with a few trips just beyond,  here are some of my highlights .....

male Little Ringed Plover, Grimsbury Reservoir, 5 April
Female Little Ringed Plover, Grimsbury Reservoir, 5 April
Chiffchaff, Tadmarton Heath BOS nature reserve, 7 April
Snakeshead Fritillaries, Clattinger Farm Wiltshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve, Cotswold Water Park, 8 April
one of the fritillaries, 8 April
Red-necked Grebe, Daventry Country Park, 9 April
pair of Red-necked Grebes and single Great Crested Grebe, Daventry Country Park, 9 April
Red-necked Grebe, Daventry Country Park, 9 April
Eurasian White-fronted Goose, Daventry Country Park, 9 April

Song Thrush with ornamental cherry blossom, Grimsbury Reservoir, 10 April
Long-tailed Tit gathering spiders webs, Grimsbury Reservoir, 10 April
collected and ready to use!
Woodpigeons, Grimsbury Reservoir, 11 April
female Mallard on her nest at Grimsbury Reservoir , 13 April
male Blackcap in Ash tree, Tadmarton Heath BOS nature reserve, 16 April
Mistle Thrush, Tadmarton Heath Golf Course driving range, 16 April
Mistle Thrush, Tadmarton Heath Golf Course driving range, 16 April
Horsetails emerging, Tad
male Grey Partridge (female nearby), Upper Wardington - on strip of bare tilled ground that has attracted up to 7 passage Northern Wheatears in the past week.
Sand Martins at Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford, 17 April - where there were also my first Swifts and House Martin of the year (but no Bonaparte's Gull, I think I was about an hour too late!)
and finally....
male Great Bustards, Salisbury Plain (Great Bustard Project tour), 8 April
male Great Bustard, Salisbury Plain, 8 April





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