2023 Patch Review

I have enjoyed a productive birding year on my Woodstock patch comprising Blenheim and the areas immediately surrounding the north of the town. I've taken part in the Patchwork Challenge along with a number of fellow Oxon birders and that has helped focus the majority of my efforts on seeking out everything possible within my 3km square patch. It has all been on foot as it's all on my doorstep. At a conservative guess probably 250 hours worth of birding and probably a similar milage over the year.

I've certainly exceeded my expectations and added a number of patch ticks throughout the year. My total for the year was 118 species. There are not many omissions this year that I expected. Tawny owl is a blinding miss given they are in Blenheim. I expected to hear them without much effort but alas distant, out the corner of my ear probables don't count. I think I managed to see most species reported at Blenheim over the year. Dave Doherty had a small flock crossbills fly over in November and it remains another hoped for patch bird for me. However, I do have Dave to thank for one of the best birds of the year.

There were no outstanding birds to match those of recent years, but some really good patch birds and some good counts too. 

Beginning with ducks, Blenheim obviously isn't a bad location to notch up a decent number of species. 2022 saw garganey and common scoter as patch megas, and this year I added another, goldeneye. This was the bird I have Dave to thank for. Funnily, I had said to him only a week or so before that this was one I hoped to get at Blenheim having never seen one here, and then he found one. Dave's Blenheim list is ridiculous but even he struggles to recall many goldeneyes so it is a genuinely top patch bird. And a drake was even more the better.

A pair of shelduck visited a few times in May, another infrequent visitor to Blenheim. Red-crested pochard was the final duck to add to the year list. Six birds in late November was the most I've seen at Blenheim. They are just about annual in my experience but don't stay more than a day. Common pochard gathered in good numbers in January and February, and returned again this autumn. 86 was the highest count from Dave at the beginning of November which is a good number for Blenheim. Mandarin are around most of the year. Numbers grew in autumn with over twenty seen quite regularly. I also saw them at various points along the river Glyme. Fewer pintail at Blenheim this year is probably due to to the deepening of the Queen Pool. Breeding gadwall and tufted duck were good records for Blenheim. Thirty of the UK population of barnacle geese were visitors for a week in September and nice to see.

I get a bit blasé about egrets given Blenheim is the best place to see them locally, but it was great to see more breeding success for the cattle egrets and on a few occasions enjoyed watching them feed in the areas bordering the Glyme north of Woodstock. On 06/09, 31 roosted on the Queen Pool island. By the end of September they had all moved on.

The best raptor was an osprey that passed through briefly on the morning of 30/03, a first for me at Blenheim. I didn't have my camera then and so it required some desperate phone scoping to try and get a memento as the video below demonstrates. 

I saw merlin north of Woodstock on several occasions early in the year. Peregrines were not as frequent as in previous years but still fairly regular. Two hobbys spent a couple of weeks hunting dragonflies over the Great Lake later in the summer allowing for some nice views.

Waders are generally not Blenheim's forte. A patch tick green sandpiper was a nice addition in September, although it didn't land. Common sandpipers were present in Spring and Autumn migration with at least 7 present on one occasion in July which was a really good number here. I was convinced a pair of Oystercatchers were going to nest on the Queen Pool island. Arriving in February and departing in July, they did everything but. Fly over lapwing, golden plover and snipe were the only other waders this year. Now the Queen Pool has been deepened and the shallow edges largely removed I've got to hope for some waders flying over to add to my list here.

It wasn't a bad year for gulls. Mediterranean gulls appeared in February on a couple of occasions. I hoped to get a passing little gull during the periods when there was a decent overland movement of them, but to no avail. Yellow-legged are guaranteed and actually easier to see at Blenheim than herring gulls. Other than a single juv herring gull on the Queen Pool in October the only others were fly overs. For whatever reason they don't loaf with the other gulls here. I'd hoped for caspian gull again and saw what I presume is the same bird I've seen in the past two years, this time in October. A great record for Blenheim was a pair of breeding common terns. I don't believe they've bred at Blenheim before. This pair used an abandoned coot nest on the edge of the Queen Pool island and despite the dredging work and high chance of predation, two of the three that hatched survived to fledge. They remained feeding with the adults for a couple of weeks before moving on.

Warblers were pretty easy to see and hear at Blenheim in the past with the large areas of vegetation bordering the lakes able to contain cetti's, sedge and reed warblers, but the removal of most of this meant they were harder to come by. Garden warbler in the Town Meadows was a great bird to watch and listen to for several weeks in May, although I don't believe it succeeded in attracting a mate. Lesser whitethroat was nice to get north of Woodstock on a few occasions. Bizarrely, a reed warbler took up residence for the second year running in a small Mock Orange bush by the green gate entrance to Blenheim. I only heard sedge warblers on two or three occasions.

Spotted flycatchers breed at Blenheim and could be seen at various points in the estate. Given they are in decline I was keen to make the most of them nearby and had some cracking views on a number of occasions. Whinchat and wheatear were patch ticks in August and September in the areas north of Woodstock. Stonechats have also been regular this autumn with up to three seen at one time, and now seem to be wintering.

Yellow wagtails were expected but with none on spring passage at Blenheim, I had to wait until late August to get some on the return leg. Always one of my favourites.

Hawfinch earlier in the year was another hoped for bird to get on the year list, although I only got fleeting views in the churchyard and overhead. Brambling were entirely absent last winter but have arrived in good numbers this autumn and relatively easy to find in their preferred spots. Hopefully some will remain into early spring when any males should be looking at their best. Corn bunting was another patch tick and there were double figures earlier this year north of Woodstock which supported a couple of hundred yellowhammers and up to 100 skylarks. Hopefully there will be similar numbers later this winter.

And not to overlook some of the regular patch birds...