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Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
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Home | Trip Reports | Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Contact | Links |
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Stephen Burch's Birding & Dragonfly Website |
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Home | Trip Reports | Gallery | UK index | Oxon pics | UK pics | Dragonflies | Other Nature | Contact | Links |
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Little Egret, Standlake Common Pit 60 23 August 2018 Helpfully walked past the hide a few times and on this pass caught a small Perch (ID - thanks to Mark Chivers)when pretty close and the sun was out. It didn't take long to swallow it! Click to enlarge |
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Little Egret, Standlake Common Pit 60 23 August 2018 Same bird as above - just after it had caught the fish. Click to enlarge |
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Little Egret, Standlake Common Pit 60 23 August 2018 Closest approach! Too large for my lens. |
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Roseate Tern, Farmoor Reservoir 9 August 2018 At around 5pm, I noticed that the Oxon Bird Log was reporting a Roseate Tern at Farmoor, so I abruptly set off for my second visit of the day. This was a lucky flight shot in failing light, just before it started raining hard. A county tick for me! |
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Roseate Tern, Farmoor Reservoir 9 August 2018 Distant record shot, highly cropped. |
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Common Sandpiper, Farmoor Reservoir 9 August 2018 I've always found Common Sands virtually impossible to photo at Farmoor as they are so wary. The causeway hide came in handy for this distant shot - note the almost complete absence of the sloping concrete! Where has the sun and heat suddenly gone? |
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Common Sandpiper, Pit 60 28 July 2018 Surprisingly this also came along in front of the hide - shortly after the Little Egret, making for a productive couple of hours! Click to enlarge |
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Little Egrets, Pit 60 28 July 2018 Remarkable collection of five all together on the island. |
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Little Egret, Pit 60 28 July 2018 After a heavy shower, the group of five above split up and starting feeding. One decided to head over in my direction in a very determined manner. Here it is on its way towards me... |
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Little Egret, Pit 60 28 July 2018 Now having arrived right in front of the hide, very briefly! |
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Black Tern, Farmoor 26 July 2018 Four of the six present at the southern end of FII, near the pontoon. |
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Dunlin, Farmoor 26 July 2018 Along the causeway. Where else?! Click to enlarge |
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Dunlin, Farmoor 26 July 2018 Crop of the photo above |
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Little Egret, Pit 60 Standlake Common 11 July 2018 Directly in front of the N hide but into the sun. |
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Grey Heron, Pit 60 Standlake Common 11 July 2018 From the N hide but less into the sun. |
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Spotted Flycatcher, Undisclosed 8 July 2018 Clearly breeding nearby. This was at a private site. Click to enlarge. |
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Slavonian Grebe, Farmoor 2 June 2018 Much rarer in Oxon than the Black-necked Grebe below. In fact this is the first full plumage bird I have seen in the county. Unfortunately, when I was there in the morning, the light was rubbish and the bird was staying well off the shore. To my regret I didn't return in the late afternoon/evening by which time the light was similar to that for the BN Grebe below, and the bird was coming in much, much closer judging by the photos some others managed to get! There was no sign of this bird the next day... To read an account of my visit that day, go to my blog. |
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Black necked Grebe, Farmoor 14 May 2018 Much better early evening light than late morning yesterday! Click to enlarge |
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Black necked Grebe, Farmoor 14 May 2018 As above Click to enlarge |
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Black necked Grebe, Farmoor 14 May 2018 As above Click to enlarge |
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Black necked Grebe, Farmoor 14 May 2018 As above Click to enlarge |
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Black necked Grebe, Farmoor 14 May 2018 As above Click to enlarge |
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Black necked Grebe, Farmoor 13 May 2018 Being reasonably obliging down the southern end of Farmoor II. Click to enlarge |
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Wheatear, Larkhill 28 April 2018 There were at least 4 birds present in the cold damp conditions today. After some time trying for photos, this one briefly flew up onto one of the fence posts surrounding the reservoir right by the car! Click to enlarge |
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Wheatear, Larkhill 28 April 2018 A crop of the shot above |
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Wheatear, Larkhill 28 April 2018 Taken through the chain link fence! Shows the conditions quite well. |
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Kingfisher, Pinkhill, Farmoor 28 April 2018 Having spent some time in the hide, without much happening, I was just about to go when this Kingfisher suddenly appeared and perched briefly on this distant branch. After a few seconds it was off... |
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Red crested Pochard, Pinkhill, Farmoor 28 April 2018 There were two males, a female and a male Tufted Duck hanging around with them at Pinkhill. They were flighty and took to the air a few times. |
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Swallow, Farmoor 28 April 2018 Not a nice day for hirundines - cold & wet! Several were gathered on the western side of FI in a long line. This was the closest one. Click to enlarge |
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Little Ringed Plover, Farmoor Reservoir 21 April 2018 A brief burst of shots, hand-held, produced this image. Not ideal as it is from above and shows too much concrete, but the bird was quite wary and flew off almost immediately afterwards! |
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Aberrant Chiffchaff sp, Hinksey Heights Golf Club 18 April 2018 This bird was initially considered to be an Iberian Chiffchaff, which would have been a surprise addition to my county, UK and world list, very close to home. So I made two visits to see this bird that day - at lunchtime and after work. At lunchtime I had brief views, but the evening visit was more productive, despite this being a difficult bird to photograph. However doubts over its song and other characters then emerged and the consensus now is that, whatever it was, it can't be ticked as an Iberian Chiffchaff. Bah! |
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Wheatear, Lark Hill 14 April 2018 At this site it is impossible to get close to birds due to a tall and very secure chain link fence. At least this time I could just balance the lens on the top of the fence for this photo! |
© All pictures copyright Stephen Burch |
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