Local Floods

The River Thame at the Ickford Bridges (photo by Philip Boardman) 

Golden Plovers on the airfield 

A pretty slow weekend dominated by floods locally. I pushed the mobile obs a bit too far and went through flood water well over the 30cm recommended maximum. Luckily the water didn't go into the air intake or else I would have written off the engine and there was also a strong current and at one point it felt like the van was going to be swept off the road. Anyway seems like I got away with it but will be more cautious in future. Ebird list for the weekend locally here: HERE. Highlight was a Bank Vole coming to food in the garden- the 791st species for the garden. 

I regularly stop and scan from the bridges as the flood plains here are good habitat. Highlights over the last year or two seen from here include White-fronted Goose, Yellow-legged Gulls, Curlews, Redshank, Pintail, Shoveler, Teal, Gadwall, Snipe, Stonechat, Peregrine, Barn Owl, Golden Plovers, Lapwings and large numbers of winter thrushes