May Highlights

So we’ve come to the end of May and the start of the summer doldrums. Whilst statistically this month should be the best one for the first half of the year in terms of rarities it had to do pretty well to beat what had been a fantastic April. So, how did it get on? Well, the answer is not too badly at all with a nice list of  headline rare birds accompanied by a good supporting cast. 

30 Arctic Terns were at Farmoor on the 1st of May and 4 present on the 6th with 5 present on the 15th and a single on the 19th with a 1st summer on the 31st. It's been a good month for Little Terns at Farmoor with 2 birds present on the 5th and on the 6th with a single bird on the 11th. A Black Tern was at Farmoor on the 5th with two of these dusky beauties present on the 19th

A Drake Garganey was on Port Meadow from the 1st-6th with two birds present on Otmoor on the 17th with singles seen at the same site sporadically until the end of May

On the wader front single Whimbrel were at Farmoor on the 4th, 15th and the 23rd and at Otmoor on the 17th. A Greenshank was at Balscote Quarry between the 5th-7th with a single bird on Otmoor on the 13th - these two birds constituted the only records all month. The highest count of Dunlin in May was of 25 at Farmoor on the 11th. Sanderling numbered 8 at Farmoor on the 22nd. There were only two records of Wood Sandpiper for the entire month: a bird was at Balscote Quarry on the 6th with a brief second bird on the RSPB Otmoor reserve 16th. Grey Plovers were at Farmoor on the 5th and at Port Meadow on the 27th. An Avocet was a very welcome discovery on Port Meadow on the 14-15th in what has been a poor spring for waders on the floods. Two Little Stint were along the causeway at Farmoor on the 15th. A fantastic near summer plumaged Ruff resided on Otmoor from the 16th-25th.

Turtle Doves thankfully arrived back at Otmoor RSPB on the 6th with up to four birds present on the reserve by the month's end. Birds were also noted just to the north at Asham Meads and at Arncott. A Quail was calling on the RSPB reserve on the 14th. A fantastic male Montagu's Harrier flew over Greenaways on Otmoor on the 18th with a female Montagu's Harrier seen just north of Burford briefly a few days later on the 20th. A female Marsh Harrier was seen on Otmoor on the 16th-17th

A Redstart was seen at Broughton Park on the 19th and a feral Ross's Goose was seen sporadically at Otmoor over the month

I had cycled over to Dorchester Gravel pits for my regular week end birding; a few days earlier the weather had turned north easterly. I was not expecting much but hoping to get a few migrants as I already had seen five Wheatears in the fields at the back of where I lived. We had good access at Dorchester GP’s those days and there were a lot of Hirundines over the pits that day (i.e. 100+ House Martin, Swallows and a few Swifts) also a couple of Redshank, a Common Sandpiper, a flyover Ringed Plover, a couple of Turtle Dove and a Hobby carrying prey. I reached an area of willow scrub and picked up a large Tit flock of 80+ birds that also contained a Willow Warbler, at least 2 Chiffchaff, a Lesser Whitethroat and a Sedge Warbler with them. Then a small bird appeared in the top of a bush around 30 feet away from me that got my attention. I had just got my bins on it (2-3 seconds) when it flew off. I searched for a further one and half hours but did not find it again and the tit flock had also moved on. Although at that point I had not seen one before my immediate thought was a Red-breasted Flycatcher! My notes at the time were of a small plumpish bird, roughly Blue Tit size and warbler like, browny above and pale underparts and the most striking points was the throat and upper breast were a reddish orange and as it flew off I noticed a dark tail with white flashes on either side. As it was the days of no mobile phones there was no way of contacting anyone but when I got home I phoned Tony Williams and he and Brian Shaw went over but did not find anything. Three days later I located a male Red-backed Shrike not 50 foot from where I saw the Flycatcher. I submitted the record to the OOS but it was rejected and I appreciate that it was a single observer sighting with no experience of the species and would have also been a first for the county. However I am still convinced of what I saw and what it was!

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