Boddington Reservoir: wild mushrooms in the woods

Misty murky weather has prevailed all weekend with the merest glimpse of the sun.  Today I reacquainted myself with Boddington Reservoir.  It is only ten minutes from home, but in the "wrong" direction i.e. not a convenient stop en route to Banbury like Grimsbury Reservoir is.  It is though, undeniably, one of the best areas for nature in Banburyshire: our largest expanse of water is surrounded by really nice habitats like wet woodland, flowery meadows and scrubby grassland.

Today it was not at it's best - grey misty conditions seemed to dampen bird activity.  But it was still rewarding to watch great-crested grebes at close quarters, check through the mixed gull flock for a few common gulls and kneel down to inspect a cluster of woodland mushrooms.  Wildfowl were surprisingly few in number-  just mallard.  The area is known to be good for tree sparrows and willow tits so I will return in better conditions soon.

Later in the day I managed a quick visit to see the gull roost at Grimsbury Reservoir - at 4.30pm the roost contained about 800 black-headed gulls, 80 lesser black-backed gulls and a single herring gull.  The latter IS notable - my first of the year at this site (since I stepped up my coverage in early summer).  Herring gulls have undergone a huge change in status in our area over the past twenty years - from being quite numerous and frequenting the rubbish tip at Alkerton in hundreds, to being something of a scarcity and a notable sighting. Much of this is linked the closure of the open refuse tip at Alkerton a few years back. 

Grimsbury Reservoir: Black redstart at the waterworks

I managed to catch up with the black redstart that has made a temporary home at the waterworks next to the reservoir.  This is part of a small influx to the country, and a really nice bird to have on our patch. They are a rare breeding bird in the UK but not uncommon during early spring and late autumn on migration.  They are a much more common bird in much of mainland Europe. The last one I saw locally was a Draycote Water on a very cold March morning a couple of years ago.

A female pochard was on the reservoir, actually quite a scarce bird locally, so nice to see.

Back-tracking to last sunday, the glorious sunny weather was great for birding.  Most noticeable for me was the arrival of fieldfares, with a flock of fifty over Upper Wardington first thing.  A late morning cross country run to Eydon via Culworth also produced more fieldfares, a few redwings and a flock of about 50 common gulls (I take my binoculars with me a in a small rucksack).  I lingered en-route in  a small patch of poplar woodland beside a stream and enjoyed watching nuthatches, treecreepers and goldcrests.  Sadly there were very few birds of prey, just one or two buzzards - no kites or kestrels - a bit surprising.

Grimsbury Reservoir: goldeneye on a crisp sunny morning

Wonderful early morning sunshine and the first significant frost of the autumn created some lovely early morning views.  

A fairly quick early morning visit to Grimsbury Reservoir on my way into work was well worth the trouble, enabling me to add a new bird to my site list - a single female goldeneye.

female goldeneye

Great crested grebes now number six - the highest number this autumn so far. 

great-crested grebe taking a drink

A pair of mute swans were also in residence, swimming their way sedately to the far end, then taking flight to return to the near end.

mute swan take-off

one of the herd

starling in smartly spotty winter plumage

I nipped back to Upper Wardington at lunchtime and found a small flock of common gulls (15) in a small sheep grazed field next to the cricket pitch.  Nice to see and likely to be newly arrived from up north.

late October: exceptionally mild weather

The past week has seen the warmest Haloween ever, with summer briefly returning to Banbury on Friday with temperature peaking over 20 degrees centigrade.

The gull roost at Grimsbury has quietened down a bit at the moment, but still huge numbers of corvids - jackdaws, rooks and crows swirling around in large flocks around dusk.

Lawyer's wig toadstools, also know as the shaggy inkcap, have sprouted from the well-trimmed lawns of the Thames Water treatment plan next to the reservoir.

shaggy inkcap toadstool

The golden plover flock at Top Dawkins, Upper Wardington, increased to 215 birds today. 
Yesterday, in the same field, over fifty lesser black-backed gulls were feeding in the late afternoon plus a single yellow-legged gull.

part of the golden plover flock (just before the heaven's opened!)

A tree sparrow has found the feeders in the garden at Upper Wardington, joining the gang of house sparrows.  Hopefully the word will get around that the food is good ("high energy, no mess", of course) and a few more will join in over the coming weeks.