Two Twites at Farmoor Reservoir 23rd October 2025

The last record of Twite from my local Farmoor Reservoir was of a single bird on November 5th 2011.It is a rare passage migrant at the reservoir with only seven records in total and I have never seen one there or in Oxfordshire.

Twite are mainly associated  with the coastal fringes and higher ground of the north of England and extending to the extreme north of Scotland.They are declining as a breeding species in Britain and are now Red Listed. Migrants arrive from other parts of Europe to spend the winter here and substantial flocks can still be encountered in Morecambe Bay, on The Humber and The Wash although these are declining too.

Settling down in the afternoon of Thursday the 23rd with a cup of tea, a post came on the Oxon Bird Forum informing me that two Twite had been discovered by Jeremy D at the reservoir that very afternoon.

I groaned, for tiredness had caught up with me with a vengeance following my marathon trip to north east Scotland and Yorkshire to see two very rare birds (see the previous two posts on this blog).

For a moment I wavered. I had after all just returned from three weeks on Shetland where I had seen hundreds of Twite but this was different.These were in Oxfordshire and my competitive nature told me I really needed to make the effort to go and see them to add them to my county list.

Subsequent updates on the forum provided additional stimulus as  they informed me the two Twite were still at the reservoir, in the same place and looked settled. 

Right that's it I said to myself 

It took but ten minutes to gather my bins, camera and change into outdoor clothing before I was out of the door and driving to Farmoor, twenty five minutes away.

The birds were feeding on the perimeter track at the western end of F1, the smaller reservoir basin so rather than go to the normal car park I diverted to Mayfield Road which allows entry to the west end of the reservoir and is a shorter distance to walk  than the normal trek up the central causeway.

Parking the car, I took the alleyway between the houses and followed the path past Pinkhill to a small ever open gate marking the reservoir's western entrance.Passing through the gate I could see half a dozen local birders standing up on the perimeter track obviously looking at the birds.

It seemed to take forever to get to them but was only a matter of minutes and Gareth kindly let me look at them through his scope and there they were and as simple as that I added another new species of bird to both my Oxfordshire (272) and Farmoor (197) lists. 

They were relatively confiding and we slowly came to realise we could get quite close to them provided there was no sudden movements on our part. In fact two of us slipped over the retaining wall and walked  along the concrete shelving to arrive almost opposite them, our profiles mainly hidden from the birds by the wall.

Slimmer but similar in size to the related Linnet, the differences in plumage are subtle with the brown upperparts and paler buff flanks liberally streaked darker brown creating a stripey look. A prominent buff wing bar on each wing is also evident. The 'open' unmarked face and throat are a distinctive warm orange buff colour rather than the grey of a Linnet and their bill is pale yellow whereas the Linnet's is grey. 

They were feeding avidly, picking at the seeds of yellow flowered Lesser Hawkbit plants that were growing at the divide of grass and tarmac.Sometimes they would disappear into the grass, so small they were almost totally concealed but for the most part they concentrated on the margin where grass met tarmac.

 

I watched and photographed them for forty minutes, enjoying every moment but then they flew further down the perimeter track to continue feeding and the rain began to set in.Time to go.

We were fortunate this afternoon that the normally much populated reservoir was virtually devoid of folk walking the perimeter track and so the birds had remained relatively undisturbed.

 

It is not often that I get a new bird species for the reservoir or for the county so I was well pleased with this sighting.

The Twite were still present in the early part of the following morning but the weather being sunny brought the inevitable people to stroll or jog around the reservoir and this regular disturbance finally persuaded the birds to leave and they were never seen again despite extensive searching from a lot of disappointed birders who had come to look for them throughout the day.

Sadly Farmoor gets so busy with footfall these days visiting birds rarely stay for long. If you want to see a rarity at Farmoor Reservoir you need to move fast.