Woodstock Wildlife Record

March arrived with some long awaited sunshine and also some lovely views of Hawfinches in the cemetery in Woodstock which I've detailed in a separate post.  https://woodstockwildlife.blogspot.com/2025/03/hawfinches-woodstock-march-2025.html They were the undoubted highlight of my month but there were plenty of other good birds to be had as well. Watching some local Barn owls hunting before dusk on a few occasions was another enjoyable experience. They are often so focussed they don't seem to notice your presence until they get quite close. There is often a discernible moment where they appear to jump when they do see you and quickly change direction. A drake Goosander at Blenheim in the first week of the month was only my second here this winter. A Barnacle goose was present at Blenheim throughout the month, associating with the growing numbers of Greylags and Canada geese and was quite approachable. I presume it has lost the rest of the feral flock that has been around this wi...

One thing I enjoy about birding is that you never know what you'll get week to week. At the end of February a Hawfinch was reported in a tree near to Hensington Road cemetery in Woodstock. Having not seen one this year I decided to go and try and see it. I knew they had been seen in and around the cemetery during the winter so opted to look for the reported bird there and that day I saw a couple high up in some of the tall trees in the cemetery. I was pleased with that given most of the time that is the best kind of view you can hope for of these birds. But knowing they were around and getting reported regularly had me wanting more. And being only a short distance from home, I wanted to make the most of the opportunity to see them. Inevitably, they became a bit of an obsession. Over the course of probably a dozen visits to the cemetery, mostly early morning when the sun was out, the views I got gradually improved and it was possible to get a feel for their movements and behaviour. ...

February on the Ardley patch got off to a great start when Justin Taylor found a Green-winged teal on the Quarry lake on 6th. Fortunately it stuck and I was able to see it in the gloom the next morning. It seems a good chance it was the same bird that had been at Otmoor given their rarity, but then amazingly another was found the next day only a few miles away in the Mid-Cherwell valley, so at least two in the area. There have been up to 150 teal wintering at Ardley, using both the quarry lake and ERF lagoon. It was good fortune that the GWT picked probably the most viewable spot on the site and remained for the remainder of the month. I also managed to see the Clifton bird so it is fair to say I've had my fill of this species recently!  The adult Caspian gull was still around at Ardley during the month.  I don't often see foxes at Ardley and never two together before. Gull numbers increased at Blenheim early in the month. Three Yellow-legged gulls in one afternoon was a good ...