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Nice views of this rarity in Oxford today! Yellow-browed warblers breed in and around Siberia and have historically over-wintered in south-east Asia. However, it's thought that recently more-and-more birds are choosing to winter in western Europe due to the increasingly mild conditions. As such, there is now a fairly steady stream of them arriving in Autumn and winter during their passage, but still hard to spot!
This year I had some great birding highlights, seeing a total of 170 species in the UK (depending on classification of some hybrids and subspecies). It would be hard to ignore the common nighthawk in Wantage as the highlight due to its undeniable rarity. However, I probably enjoyed some of my other lifers throughout the year even more, such as the waxwings found just outside of Edinburgh; the European bee-eater seen during a very drizzly trip to Portland Bird Observatory; and the Siberian chiffchaff seen within Oxford at Port Meadow. For 2023, I've decided to take part in the Patchwork Challenge, where I'll focus on a local area less than 3km^2 and see how many species I can record across the year. I've chosen a patch within Oxford that includes the river Cherwell, with areas of floodplain, as well as agricultural land and small pockets of woodland.
I had a great time at the British Ecological Society's annual meeting this year in Edinburgh, where I was presenting on some of my PhD research while also learning about some great ecological and evolutionary research conducted by others! I was also lucky to go up a couple of days early for some birding, where I saw 73 species including 8 lifers (pink-footed goose, common eider, velvet scoter, common scoter, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, Slavonian grebe & waxwing). The reserve at Musselburgh was an excellent coastal site, with various sea-ducks bobbing around the choppy waves, while hoards of waders could be watched piping around the mouth of the river Esk. My highlight has to be the moderate flock of waxwings which were feeding quite happily on a residential street in Portobello.
Not the sharpest photo, but it was third-time lucky after visiting Otmoor twice before this week to try and spot a short-eared owl!
A crazy day for an Oxfordshire-based birder... The common nighthawk is a super rare sighting for the UK, with less than 25 observations of the species in the country ever, and importantly always on coastal sites or off-islands not the mainland. This guy should be on his migration between the US and South America, so it's safe to say it's a little lost. Being a primarily nocturnal species, this individual was happily napping on a garden fence for ~6 hours before heading off to who-knows-where at dusk, but not without attracting 600 birders from all over the country first! Special thanks to the home-owners for allowing access and suggesting a charitable donation from the twitchers, raising over £4000 across the day split between a local wildlife hospital and Spinal Injury Unit.
This was one of those days that you always hope for as a birdwatcher. At Farmoor reservoir, both a dunlin and little stint could be found foraging together on the fringes of the water. When you read up on these species, they seem quite tricky to set apart from one another - so when the opportunity came to view them side-by-side in the field I was very excited! As can be seen, the little stint is a smaller bird, with an overall slightly more rounded appearance and less mottling on the belly. The dunlin's slightly longer and down-curved bill also seemed much more obvious when next to the little stint's short, straight and stubbier one.
I've been down in Portland, Dorset on a field-trip with the rest of my research group. Unfortunately, there has been fairly persistent rain making it hard to catch and ring birds! However, it was nice to be able to take a trip into Weymouth and do some local birding, including this black-tailed godwit and five new species for my year: European bee-eater; curlew sandpiper; green sandpiper; great white egret and balearic shearwater.
Wytham Woods is the most studied woodland on earth 🌳🌳🌳. Every spring, a population of birds undergo their breeding season as they make their homes in the 1000 or so nest boxes spread across the woods. And every spring, this population is closely monitored by members of the Edward Grey Institute at the University of Oxford. This year, the long-term monitoring project celebrates it 75th birthday! That's 75 years of continuous data collection, which is incredibly valuable data that has been used to help answer fundamental questions about ecology and evolution. Watch this video to find out how we monitor the population and collect standardised data, taking you through a season in three of the boxes! • • • • • • • • • • All fieldwork in this video was undertaken with the correct British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) ringing licenses - please do not interfere with breeding birds unless you also have the correct permits! |
Joe WoodmanA blog of my ideas, photography and research of the natural world. Archives
February 2024
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