It is fair to say that, so far, this Spring at Farmoor has been a good one for migrating birds. An early Sandwich Tern, a comparative rarity at Farmoor, arrived on the very premature date of 28th February and was shortly followed by another a few days later.
Yellow Wagtails. predominantly colourful males, have been present virtually every day this month, in numbers varying from singles to up to eleven and latterly they have been joined by a handful of equally smart White Wagtails too.
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| Yellow Wagtail |
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| White Wagtail |
Much more unusual was a party of five Whimbrel that were present for a few exciting minutes on the causeway before flying high up into a cold, clear blue sky and off to the northeast. Their distinctive tittering contact calls still audible as they became but specks in the sky.
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| Whimbrel |
Two days later a group of eight Bar tailed Godwits circled the reservoir before they too headed north.
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| Five of the eight Bar tailed Godwits |
Today was sunny with a brisk north easterly wind to keep one on one's toes but it was not unpleasant to be out. Today was also the day for my second covid jab so I did not get to the reservoir at my customary early hour but only arrived at ten and then to only stop briefly at the reservoir, whilst on my way for my innoculation at the Kassam Stadium on the other side of Oxford. Finding myself with an hour to spare I decided to walk up and back down the causeway.
Two thirds of the way along I could see the white forms of gulls dipping up and down above the sparkling blue waters of the larger basin. Usually these turn out to be the ever present Black headed Gulls but there was something different and distinctive about the flight of these birds, although it was confusing as Black headed Gulls were flying amongst them. I halted in the lee of the Causeway Hide and scanned with my bins and my suspicions were confirmed when I saw the gulls were Little Gulls, daintily dipping up and down as they picked hatching flies from the water's surface. They kept very much to a small area in the middle of the reservoir, patrolling back and fore, flying into the wind and then turning to be blown back and to start all over again. After further examination of the flock I could hardly fail to notice that there were a few terns amongst the gulls too and identified both Arctic and Common Terns, two of each but perhaps the most thrilling of all, was the discovery of a smaller slimmer bodied tern, very dark even in the dazzle of sunlight. It wheeled and confirmed its identity when I saw its sooty black body and steel grey wings. It was a Black Tern, always a prize find at Farmoor Reservoir.
I watched until I had to leave. It would never do for me to miss my covid injection.Not even for such goodies as these. I noted on the Oxon Bird Log that a Bar tailed Godwit had been found on the western bank of the larger basin this morning and had been described as 'mobile'.That would be a good bird to see but it would have to wait, assuming it remained on what is now a very populous reservoir.
I duly received my injection and then spent two hours with Jane and Moth talking about a proposed painting Jane intended to do featuring bird migration. By the time I left it was approaching four so I made my way to the reservoir intending to look for the godwit and anything else that might be around. A report had confirmed the godwit had been seen an hour earlier, still on the western bank and even more enticing it was allowing close approach. It is a long way around the larger basin and the western bank is the furthest part of the reservoir from the car park. There was little choice but to slog my way around the concrete perimeter and approaching the western bank I scanned its length and my heart sank as there was no sign of any wader whatsoever.
Sometimes it happens this way and there is nothing one can do but shrug and get on with it.I carried on walking, resolving to head for the central causeway which was my quickest route back to the car park. Shortly afterwards I caught a flash of silvery white underwings as a wader alighted further along the western bank. Could it really be?
I looked through my bins and in the distance there was the unmistakeable profile of a long legged and long billed, medium sized wader. It was the Bar tailed Godwit and even better it was a male, resplendent in rich orange underparts and variegated dark brown and buff upperparts.
I made haste, anxious that no one would come along to flush it. The reservoir these covid days is highly popular with the public for exercise and as a consequence the disturbance is now much greater than in pre-covid times.You have to be quick otherwise anything you are watching or photographing is inevitably flushed by an innocent passer by.
I need not have worried as, remarkably, the entire western bank was devoid of human life and the 'barwit' (as we birders like to call this species of bird) was ultra confiding and obviously untroubled by my presence. I stopped well away from the bird and it continued to walk towards, me picking morsels from the water's edge.
I sat on the retaining wall and the godwit came closer and closer and closer. It was almost too good to be true and I fired away with my camera, trying to get the best shot I could of its colourful plumage, radiant in a sun that was now casting a much gentler light than would have been the case in the middle of the day.
Two Bar tailed Godwit records in one month at this inland reservoir can be considered exceptional and has pleased me no end. It is a bird that holds many happy memories for me deriving from hours of seawatching from Newhaven West Pier, during the time I lived in Sussex. When seawatching we always knew that a northeast wind in April would bring waders and it never let us down.The two waders we saw most frequently were Bar tailed Godwits and Whimbrels, both originating from similar wintering areas along the western coast of Africa and often they travelled together in mixed flocks. At other times the flocks were separate and, always it was the Bar tailed Godwits that formed the larger flocks, sometimes running into well over a hundred birds in one flock. Some flocks came in close to the shore, flying low over the sea in long lines, one bird following another, the males rich orange underparts and dark striped buff upperparts contrasting with the females, dressed in grey and buff tones. At other times you stare far out to sea and high in the sky, what appears like a whisp of smoke, is in fact a distant flock of 'barwits', the shape of the flock forever changing, contracting and expanding as the birds hurry east, way out over the sea, high in the sky.It is truly exhilerating and not a little emotional to watch these birds responding to a seasonal stimulus to make a heroic journey and travel vast distances to breed on Arctic coasts from Scandinavia to northeast Siberia.
The migration we observed in Sussex, although mightily impressive, pales into insignifcance when one reads of those Bar tailed Godwits that breed in Alaska and then cross the Pacific Ocean to reach their winter home in New Zealand and in so doing perform the longest non stop flight of any bird, flying without rest for seven nights and days.
I spent a happy two hours with this one Bar tailed Godwit, relishing the opportunity to watch such a beautiful confiding creature at such close quarters.
The 'barwit' spent its entire time on the western bank apart from a few brief flights when somebody got too close and it took mild fright. It never went far though, just a few metres out over the water and then flew back to settle on the concrete shoreline and recommence its constant feeding. It has a long way to go and the plentiful supply of invertebrates available at the water's edge provided a handy source of refuelling for its onward flight.
I looked one last time at the 'barwit' wandering along before me and wondered where it will be tomorrow. It is bound to leave tonight or maybe first thing in the morning. Birds on Spring migration never hang about as the migratory urge and rush to pair and breed is too pressing to allow any undue delay.
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