August 2025

My local birding in August was almost exclusively focussed on Ardley in the hope of a decent wader or two. Last year in July and August, Redshank, Greenshank, Black-tailed godwit, and Wood sandpiper had appeared on the ERF lagoon by mid-August, so naturally the expectation was for similar this year. But it's easy to have unrealistic expectations of a small patch like Ardley, and the reality is August was quite underwhelming on the wader front. There wasn't anything of note. Lapwing numbers were generally low compared to last year. Green sandpiper numbers were also comparatively low, only reaching 6 on a couple of occasions, whereas previous years have seen double figures quite regularly on the lagoon. A couple of juv Little ringed plovers were joined by a juv Ringed plover mid-month and the three knocked about together on the lagoon for a couple of weeks. Other than a few single Common sandpipers, that was it. The quarry produced the waders in the spring, but doesn't seem as attractive on the return leg for whatever reason.

A Green sandpiper in the reflections of the ERF building which often creates some unnatural colours and patterns.

Two juvenile Shelduck arrived on the lagoon in August and remained for a number of weeks. An adult pair had been present earlier in the year and I presume bred somewhere locally, and these two birds are their progeny. One of the adults had been present during July, but moved on when the juveniles appeared. 

A decent number of Black-headed gulls gather and roost on the ERF lagoon, raising the hope for a Med gull among them, but my wait continues for one at Ardley. However, my favourite bird of the month was a plumage tick for me at Ardley in the form of a juvenile Caspian gull. For whatever reason, the large gulls prefer the quarry to loaf and roost and the hoped for juv Casp materialised mid-month. This one was structurally quite an attractive example I thought. The only reason I didn't spend more time watching it was because JFT was on site and found what for me was a patch tick Whinchat. More on that later.

In July I found a colour-ringed Yellow-legged gull on the quarry, the second of the year. Again, I sent off the details to the ringing scheme and received a response during August confirming its origin and history. The bird was ringed in May 2021 as a nestling in Switzerland near the German border. As the info below shows, it has spent its first summer in Leicestershire, but wasn't reported since the occasions I saw it at Ardley this year.

The ringed YLG in July

A different, 3CY YLG from this month having a good moult

Juv LBBG

Ardley tends to be quite reliable for a Redstart in August, so it was nice to keep my record going for another year. A new piece of fence looked perfect for one and lo and behold it produced! Two Wheatears during the month were unexpected. I've not had an autumn Wheatear here before, so two at once was a good record. As already mentioned, a Whinchat found by JFT was a long awaited patch tick. I saw it again on a few more occasions in the following week. It was always distant so extreme record shots had to suffice. A very good spot by JFT as the photos demonstrate. In fact, all three species were frustratingly distant but to get all three in the month was great.

The tricky Whinchat, above and below.

It was another good month for insects at Ardley. I had a few more sightings of what was almost certainly a single Lesser Emperor. It was nice to see one behaving differently to those I'd seen at Blenheim earlier in the summer. This one was hunting flies away from the waterbodies and would quite often come within a few feet of me. Migrant hawkers become the most numerous hawker dragonfly at this time of year and are relatively easy to photograph in flight compared to other species due to their habit of hovering stationary for seconds at a time. Willow emerald damselflies were present around the Trow Pool in decent numbers.

A butterfly species I thought was likely at Ardley, and have discussed a lot with JFT is Brown hairstreak. There are a number of Ash trees and plenty of Blackthorn, so it seems reasonable to expect it here, but up until now we hadn't found any. Late in the month I just happened to glance a butterfly out the corner of my eye, and was delighted to see it was a beautiful female Brown hairstreak. I watched it for about 20 minutes in a section of the hedgerow bordering the quarry, and it gave me some lovely views. JFT had a Purple hairstreak earlier in the summer at the site, and we've seen Green previously, so another great species to add to the list.

Away from Ardley, the obvious birding highlight of the month was the Marsh Sandpiper at Standlake. I went early on the Friday morning after it was confirmed, and although the light was poor and it was always distant, what a great bird to see in Oxfordshire.

A few more photos from the month...

I believe a Greylag x Barnacle hybrid. It's the size of a Barnacle goose and although it hangs out with Canadas, the yellow legs and pink in the bill I think rules out a Canada x Barnacle hybrid.

Two images of the same Buzzard combined.