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 with only seven records in total from Farmoor and just as relevant I have never seen one in Oxfordshire.

Twite are more associated  with coastal fringes and higher ground  from the north of England to the far north of Scotland.They are declining as a breeding species in Britain and are now Red Listed.In winter flocks 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 early afternoon of Thursday the 23rd with a cup of tea, a post came on the Oxon Bird Forum informing me of two Twite having 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.

Subsequent updates on the forum 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 track to a small 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 asimple 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 dark brown upperparts and buff flanks liberally streaked with darker brown creating a stripey look. A prominent buff wing bar 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 hey concentrated on the margin where grass met tarmac

 

I watched them for forty minutes but then they flew further down the perimeter track to continue feeding and the rain began to set in.

We were fortunate this afternoon that the normally much populated reservoir was virtually devoid of folk walking the perimeter and so the birds remained 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 early the next morning but the weather being sunny brought the inevitable people strolling or jogging around the reservor which finally persuaded the birds to leave and they were never seen again despite extensive searching from a lot of disappointed birders visiting throughout the day

Sadly Farmoor gets so busy with footfall these days that birds rarely stay for long.