New OxPods episode is out! Found on our website, Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts.

Sex is so widespread that you could assume it’s essential for life as we know it, playing a central role in the evolution and the development of animal and human societies. However, it’s not the only way of producing offspring, and compared to asexual reproduction, sex actually entails a number of costs. Because of this, ‘Why sex?’ is one of the most fundamental questions in biology that has puzzled scientists for many years.
 
In this episode of OxPods, I chat to Dr Chris Wilson, an evolutionary biologist whose research aims to uncover why sex exists.​

Waxwings are surely one of the most sought after bird sightings for a UK-based birdwatcher in the winter. These birds are winter visitors to our isles, but the numbers that visit fluctuate greatly year-by-year depending on the size of the local population in their Scandinavian breeding grounds. This winter has been a waxwing "irruption" in the UK, and I was waiting for some local visitors until today where there has been a small flock feeding in the housing estate where I live! It was great to see them on my walk into the office. It also made me wonder about the wider patterns of winter visiting birds in the UK. This year I have seen many more redpoll and siskin around Oxford, both of which are winter visitors to the UK (although siskins do have a moderate breeding population restricted outside of central England). I wonder whether waxwing irruptions correlate with winters where we see many more numbers in the other species that come from their Northern breeding grounds?

I had a very grey walk around Farmoor reservoir to catch up with some of the site's classic winter species, as well as a few unusual visitors. The female greater scaup was showing well, a species that has been wintering at this site for a number of years now, but always as a single individual or in very low numbers. Additionally, a lovely pair of red knot were found along the causeway. Large numbers of this species winters in the UK away from their Arctic breeding grounds, but its an unusual species to see in central Oxfordshire seeing as they mostly congregate along our coastlines.

2023 was my best year of birding so far, seeing 197 species in total (21 more than the previous year), including a massive 36 lifers! This is reflective of a few things: more time spent birding local patches; a few trips to new places; and a generally increasing love for knowing what birds are around me wherever I go.

The first of these (birding local patches) was something relatively new to me. I focussed on an area which I've posted about previously - a 2km squared patch in the northeast of the city of Oxford. I visited this site over 100 times during the year, made easy by the fact that I walk through part of it on my way to and from work. Highlights include my daily visits after fieldwork in the spring to a small flood, which luckily didn't dry up until May allowing for a few interesting waders which dropped past on their migrations (including lapwing, green sandpiper and common sandpiper). Also, a few lucky flyovers from species such as yellow wagtail and oystercatcher in the spring, and brambling and merlin in the winter, brought my tally up. Significant flooding in the north along the river Cherwell allowed for a shelduck and great white egret (the last two species seen on the patch before the new year!). However, the main highlight for me was the totally unexpected barn owl which flew off a roosting site in September, I'll be sure to keep my eyes out for it in the future as this is a relatively rare species to see within the city. In total, I saw 97 species on this site - not bad for a non-coastal urban patch!

Visiting new places both within and outside the UK was also a great way to see new species. A trip with the research group to Norfolk in February was made special by seeing tonnes of brent geese, pink-footed geese and whooper swans across a number of sites; shore lark at Holkham bay; and a long-eared owl and snow bunting at Cley. I took an Easter break with my family to the Cairngorms, which featured one of my birding highlights of the year with a pair of golden eagles on my birthday; and a post-field season camping trip to Gloucestershire was a great opportunity to see the returning bluethroat. Visiting my girlfriend's family in Paris meant I was able to see some species rarely seen in the UK, including a black kite along a main road just outside of the city, as well as short-toed treecreeper and middle spotted woodpecker in a large metropolitan park. My annual family trip to Scilly was fantastic this year, with the pelagics sea trip bringing Wilson's storm petrel and three new species of shearwater. Finally, a trip to Copenhagen with my sisters in December included a short walk around Naturecenter Amager, where I saw my first ever rough-legged buzzard.

2024 will be an interesting year. I'll be finishing off my PhD and am unsure of where I'll be going after that - but I'm excited to see what this uncertainty will lead to (both bird-related and bird-unrelated!).

Top 10 2023 bird moments:
1. Pair of golden eagles on 8th April (my birthday!) undergoing pairing behaviour from the summit of Creag Choinnich in the Cairngorms.
2. Small flock of shore lark glistening in winter sunlight after a long walk trying our best to find them on 25th Feb at Holkham Bay.
3. A beautiful bluethroat posing on a post to a small group of birders on 16th June at WWT Slimbridge.
4. The wood warbler with its ridiculously beautiful song trilling and showing well on the 29th April in Wytham Woods after a check of my nest-box round.
5. Finding a common sandpiper on the 23rd May after many daily trips to the local Marston Meadows flood.
6. A pogo-ing Wilson’s storm petrel dashing past the boat on the 24th July on a pelagics seabird trip off Scilly.
7. A couple of beautiful singing woodlark on the 26th February in south-east Oxfordshire.
8. An eery spotted crake singing its unusal drip-drop like calls at dusk on the 29th April at RSPB Otmoor.
9. The sudden appearance of a Goshawk when watching one of the data collection drone flights on 21st March at Wytham Woods.
10. Ringing my first firecrest on 28th September caught at Portland Bird Observatory.