June 2025

After a productive May on the birding front, inevitably June would see the quieter spell develop as the passage period has now passed. However, you do begin to signs of the post-breeding movements and gatherings of some birds. Lapwings and Black-headed gulls, including some juvenile birds start reappearing at Ardley and utilise the now very water-depleted lagoon. It went from deep to a puddle in a few weeks since the sluice gate was opened. Green sandpipers also arrived back mid-month and hopefully their numbers will grow in the coming months as they tend to do at Ardley. A drake Teal mid-month also showed there are birds on the move and something unusual may turn up. A Short-eared owl and the mystery Canvasback were June birds in 2024 at Ardley so it's still worth the effort I think. The only new bird for the year list at Ardley this month was another patch tick in the form of a Cuckoo. It's one I've half expected at some point but all the same a very good patch bird. I just happened to flush this one out of a hedge and it flew into the tall bushes that surround the quarry lake. It was too brief to get a photo and frustratingly I couldn't relocate it. 

The best record at Ardley was confirmation that two pairs of Little Ringed Plovers have bred successfully and produced two young each. I had contacted the site manager for the quarry at the end of April when it seemed likely there were birds intent on nesting and he ensured that area of the site would go undisturbed for the remainder of the breeding season. It seems likely by this time next year that particular area of the quarry will be relandscaped so this may be a one-off breeding success. The other notable record was the presence of 15 of them on 30th June. And then 19 a few days later. A remarkable number! This would seem to be a mix of the resident birds and other post-breeders. The intriguing thing is that they only seem to gather in this number in the evening, and during the day most of them go elsewhere. 

10 LRPs on ERF lagoon 30th June

A pair of Oystercatchers and a single Common Sandpiper were the only other real notable records at Ardley this month. 

In my previous monthly blog I detailed a colour-ringed Yellow-legged gull I'd seen on the quarry on 10th May. I'd sent off the sighting to the ringing scheme and recently received a reply with the bird's history. The initial journey north as a juvenile is quite interesting. There's obviously an urge to disperse quite far and wide. It then seems to have settled in this general area and will no doubt head south again once it reaches breeding age.

Odonata season is now in full swing which makes visits to Ardley even more time consuming. The Trow Pool at Ardley is a good little site for a variety of species. After a few Hairy Dragonflies earlier in the spring I was pleased to add Downy Emerald to my site list. I think I've seen just about everything I might expect to see here now, but as last year's Lesser Emperor showed, who knows?!

Try as I might, this was the best image I could get of the Downy Emerald.

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Brown Hawker

I continued my efforts to try and see some of the locally scarce species. A few visits to Parsonage Moor and Cothill Fen gave me good views of Southern Damselflies, Small Red Damselflies and Keeled Skimmers. The Small Reds weren't too easy to find compared to the other two species and from reading a bit more about them they seem to need near perfect conditions to become active so that might explain it. That and the fact there probably aren't too many of them!

Keeled Skimmer

Small Red Damselfly

Aside from the breeding egrets at Blenheim, as usual at this time of year there's not been too much of interest. The breeding success of the returning pair of Oystercatchers was great to see. This is their third year of trying and probably a mix of more experience and a bit of luck saw them fledge one juvenile. 

The numbers of egrets on the Queen Pool island is always impressive at this time of year. There appeared to be an influx of Cattle egrets towards the end of the month joining the good number of Little Egrets. As in previous years, their breeding season is quite long with some starting fairly early in spring and others waiting until later in the year. I estimated about 70 egrets (Little and Cattle) on the island one morning in late June. I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that the roost, including all juvenile birds and nestlings may total three figures. 

It has been encouraging to see a better year for butterflies after last year's poor season. The highlight for me this month was finding a couple of White-letter Hairstreaks in the Community Orchard in Woodstock. I found a few in more or less the same spot in 2023 so good to know there must be a small population existing here.

White-letter Hairstreak

Essex Skipper

Small Skipper

Some other bits and pieces from the month below...

Bee Orchid at Ardley

A Grumman Albatross over Woodstock. This very plane served in the US military in both Korea and Vietnam. As close as I'll get to an actual Albatross on my Oxon list.

A Lancaster over Ardley late in the month