A Black necked Grebe visits Farmoor 22nd August 2025

                

Farmoor was doing its best to resemble a continental seaside resort today as myself, Phil and Dave promenaded up the causeway on a warm sunlit mid morning, the waters of the reservoir silky smooth, untroubled by any wind.These are the halcyon days of late summer but it will not last forever.

All very nice but the benign conditions pressaged very little in the way of birdlife but unusually also little in the way of human presence which was no bad thing.

We made our way to the hide at Thames Water's Pinkhill Reserve by the River Thames but here also there was little to see apart from two teal dabbling in the increasingly shallow water as the drought continues. We sat in the hide chatting and looking out on the tranquil aquatic surrounds of the tiny reserve.I always feel a calm come over me when indulging in such an activity if you can call it thus.Often I will come to sit, alone and quiet in this hide and allow my mind and body to free fall into pleasing sensory and physical sensations

That was not for today however as we decided to move on, following the Thames Path, flanked with raggedy hedges of hawthorn and blackthorn shrouded in brambles, the sprays and runners bearing fists of berries, some black, lustrous and sweet to taste amongst others that were still red and hard and yet to ripen.

Two huge, venerable willows bowered the path further on, the enormous boughs, gigantic and mishapen, aslant across the path, leaning above our heads as if almost too heavy for the tree to bear and presenting curtains of long green attenuated leaves that hang almost to the ground and one has to brush gently aside with the back of a hand to pass under. Everytime I see them George Butterworth's  pastoral composition The Banks of Green Willow comes to my mind.

Further along the path we came to the pumphouse where the water is pumped into the reservoir from the adjacent River Thames, the brutalist architecture of the building incongruous amongst its idyllic surrounds, jarring to the eye but to me remains strangely attractive   

During a Thames Water work party here last week, when trimming the banks of the river we discovered a hidden rope attached to the bank and leading to a cage, deep in the opaque green water of the river. Curious we hauled it out to discover it was full of Signal Crayfish, the invasive American rival to our indigenous crayfish and rapidly superceding it in our rivers.

There must have been around twenty in there, gyrating and twisting, waving fearsome looking claws in a vain endeavour to escape. We took one out to photograph it - well when, if ever do you get such an opportunity? 

They are surprisingly powerful creatures but if held firmly by the body behind their claws cannot harm you. We put the cage and its contents back in the water assuming they belonged to an opportunist local fisherman but learnt later that it was the property of the Environment Agency, presumably doing some research into the crayfish.

Moving on I picked ripe blackberries to swallow and savour from the high hedge by the tarmac track that runs to Lower Whitley Farm but we never found the Spotted Flycatcher that had been seen hereabouts by Paul yesterday.

We took the zigzag path back up to the reservoir and turning onto the perimeter track headed for the causeway. Approaching the causeway Dave's phone rang.It was Paul informing Dave that a friend of his had discovered a Black necked Grebe in the northwest corner of F1 the smaller of the reservoir's two basins and right where we were approaching.

The waters were still glass smooth so anything on the water would be obvious. A scattering of Great crested Grebes floated on the benign surface and slightly further out was undeniably another grebe but smaller.

Through binoculars it was confirmed to be the Black necked Grebe, a juvenile in grey and white plumage.

Slowly it swam closer picking insects from the water's surface and occasionally diving. I chided myself for not bringing my camera but my back has been telling me for weeks that it really needs a break.Dave fortunately had his camera and managed some more than acceptable images

Black necked Grebes are annual passage migrants at the reservoir in both Spring and Autumn but always good to see as they rarely remain for longer than a day or two.Where they come from and where they are bound for is open to conjecture. Possibly they are from the small breeding population at St Aidans in Yorkshire  and are making their way to the Thames Estuary or the south coast of England where the majority spend the winter.

We walked back to the cafe and I decided to ask permission to drive around the reservoir to go and photograph the grebe which had looked content and settled in its corner when we left 

I duly did this but on checking where we had seen the grebe not thirty minutes ago I could find no sign of it and despite checking and re-checking it was definitely not there. I walked the western bank of the basin and half the length of the causeway but still could find no sign.Paul joined me but he could not find it either. We were non plussed and after an hour of fruitless searching with some other birders had to assume it had somehow departed or maybe was somewhere else on the larger basin F2 but that seemed unlikely as it was very busy with yachts and fishermen

I gave up and drove home.

Drawing up on my driveway my phone pinged.It was a message from Paul on the Oxon Bird Log announcing he had re-found the grebe half way down the northern bank of F1, feeding happily by the old mussel encrusted filtration cages - now beached and abandoned on the concrete shelving

There was no question. I had to go back to Farmoor and photograph the grebe

I was now into mid afternoon on getting back to the reservoir with sun blazing down from a cloudless sky. Costa del Farmoor! Well almost.

A short walk around the smaller basin to half way along the perimeter track brought me to where the grebe was last seen but there was no sign. 

I walked further and here a familiar small dumpy bird surfaced like a bobbing cork close into the edge of the reservoir. Found it!

Now the problem was how to get a decent photo in this bright and harsh sunlight.My aim was to try and get images showing the demonic red eyes that this grebe retains at all times but it was far from easy and I had to  surrepticiously position myself between the grebe to my left and the sun to my right to get the right angle and without the grebe swimming further out into the reservoir, taking mild alarm at my obvious presence standing on the perimeter track. 

I formed a plan. Every time the grebe dived and was underwater I would move rapidly to where I thought it might re-surface and crouch on the retaining wall thus lowering my profile.

For once it worked and I happily took my images in between moving to a new position every time the grebe dived

I spent half an hour with the grebe and then at around 4pm headed back to the car. Happy with what I had achieved.

It had been a long day.