Twitching, travel and county birding Review 2021

One of the benefits of being patch displaced is the opportunity for nomadism. For the first time in many years (since I moved out of the Beddington Farmlands obs) I now do not have a primary birding patch so until we get our own reserve/eco-farm it's a good opportunity to take inspiration from Hawfinches and Crossbills and wander around looking for sustenance. Its been very interesting and great to have central databases like Ebird and Irecord to submit records to keep track of the meanderings and also to feel like still part of  a 'patch' but on a much bigger scale. So here's a few pics of my wanderings for 2021, for county birding highlights scroll further down.

I did a two dayer in Yorkshire to twitch the Long-toed Stint (above) and White-tailed Lapwing (below).

A few days in Kent through the year were pretty standard - this Bonaparte's Gull at Oare is now in it's ninth returning year 

I bought a generator and did a few days moth exploring. A couple of trips to Portland were epic.

Caught my own Radford's Flame Shoulder (above) and other Portland specialities such as Flame Brocade (below) 

Started over-nighting in the camper for work trips to London- hope to  move around in the coming Spring and Summer and do some more moth trapping  

A couple of camping trips with the family and lots of days out (below). I'm learning a surprising amount about prehistoric life thanks to a shared interest with Jacob and visits to dinosaur attractions and museums. 

Started looking into taking Jacob on field trips to look for fossils (was kindly donated these fossils above on a recce to Warden Point on Sheppey to start our collection). The mission with Jacob for 2022 is to look for a bird fossil and plan family trips around fossil hunting locations.  

Local Birding in Oxon and Bucks 

The year started off with an exciting influx of White-fronted Geese, these birds were at Otmoor

Local Long-eared Owls are always a winter winner 

Found this Black Redstart on Oakley Airfield 

Another okayish local find was this Brent Goose at Otmoor (had a pretty good finding start to the year with White-front in Bucks and a few other bits too- unfortunately my luck dried up and I had a finding famine for most of the autumn) 

This Grey Plover at Otmoor was another local winter highlight. The White-fronted Goose spectacle continued throughout the winter (Otmoor birds again below) 

By February there were amazing numbers of wintering waders and waterfowl at Otmoor including this flock of Ruff

Nick found this Ring-necked Duck at Otmoor 

The excellent local birding was associated with the whole area being very wet and well flooded

This Glossy Ibis at Otmoor in Spring was the first in a good year for this species locally

Golden Plovers up on Oakley Airfield. Unfortunately this great local birding site was seized by Capitalists in the Spring (below) who removed all public access and are now building an autonomous vehicle testing track on it. It was an excellent site within walking distance. 

Found this Great Egret at Waterstock- a first for this site 

The arrival of Curlews in early Spring is a local phenomenon - a lowland breeding population still survives in the Thame Catchment - we can hear them singing from the garden some days which is simply brilliant 

Myself and Isaac West did a big day at Otmoor in April and managed to see 100 species in a day at this fabulous site

Wheatears on the airfield were the last good birds I saw up there before it was lock downed. Will try and speak to the farmer to see if he will allow access for a bit of birding. 

These breeding Garganey on Otmoor were a summer highlight

Did some more moth trapping at Waterstock Mill- a big population of Poplar Hawkmoths there and a few local specialities including Dotted Fan-foot and this Large Emerald (below) was a lifer. Also caught a Vagrant Piercer there which is an Oxon mega- only three or so records.

Purple Sandpiper at Farmoor Reservoir in September- mega! 

Isaac found this brilliant juv Caspian Gull at Farmoor in September 

Mid-autumn in Oxforshire was all about herons and egrets. Cattle Egrets colonised the county this year and by the end of the breeding season there were flocks roaming. Great Egrets keep becoming more regular (a confiding bird at Otmoor below) .

This Purple Heron at Blenheim Park was another local autumn highlight

Cattle Egret conquest (Otmoor)

Finally saw a Brown Hairstreak at Otmoor

Thomas found this Pec at Port Meadow- another local birding highlight 

Little Auk on the Thames in the wake of Storm Arwen was absolutely mega! 

Still a week left of the year so hopefully time for another local highlight. The Weasel yesterday was the most recent highlight.