Woodstock Wildlife Record

On a sunny morning visit to Ardley in early June I was unexpectedly presented with a perfect opportunity to try my luck photographing swifts. About 20 birds were feeding low over the quarry lake and surrounding vegetation in close proximity to the footpath. They were following a rough circuit meaning they were constantly passing through the same small area of air space, which at least provided some element of predictability. Most of the time there seems little point trying to photograph swifts as they are often too high and distant, too fleeting, or just too difficult. The closer they are, the more tempting it is to try, but their proximity increases their relative speed so it becomes a real challenge. But this was as good an opportunity as I could get to try and take some relatively close up shots of them. Conditions were perfect with the sun on my back, and early enough that it wasn't too bright. I have recently upgraded my camera equipment so am now enjoying the benefits of a mi...

After a good run of birds at Ardley during April, May brought another two patch ticks. Firstly, a Sanderling found by JFT on 16th. Fortunately I was able to twitch it that morning before it departed and add it as my 19th wader species at the site. The quarry has delivered some of the "hoped for" species this spring given the lagoon was out of service due to the water level being kept high. However, towards the end of the month those who manage the ERF site re-opened the sluice gate on the lagoon and the water level has dropped considerably. I'm not sure why it was shut, but assuming it now remains open it should hopefully mean a muddy scrape once more to pull in the waders on their autumn migration. With that and the quarry, hopes will be high! The second patch tick was less exciting in the form of a Reed Warbler on 26th. I've only ever had one Sedge Warbler at Ardley before so some of these common species remain good birds for the site. Two Ringed Plovers arrived wit...

I enjoyed an excellent April at the Ardley ERF/Quarry patch with plenty of year ticks and also a few patch firsts. Up until now it has been the ERF lagoon that has attracted the waders over the past few years, but landscaping of an area of the quarry towards the end of last year created a nice shallow lake which looked perfect for passing waders. JFT and I have anticipated pretty much everything dropping in and for me at least I managed to get some really good birds even if some of those hoped for haven't appeared. But there's still time.  The stand-out bird of the month for me was a Whimbrel on 11th April. Unfortunately it flew almost as soon as I arrived and after circling a couple of times it headed off west, but did give me some nice flypasts before it went. It marks another great bird for the patch and another good species of wader to add to the list. Another new wader for me this month was Oystercatcher. Despite being relatively common locally I've never seen one at A...