The start of the new lockdown coincided with my days off this week and some beautiful autumn sunshine. I had fully intended to pay a visit to Slimbridge on Thursday, but sadly that is closed for the moment, I therefore headed for some more local sites. At Stanton Park, on Friday, I was surprised to find the car park almost full, even at 10 o'lock in the morning. However, it is a large area and I had little difficulty in finding a quiet spot next to some a bird feeding station, which some thoughtful person had filled with a range of food.. No sooner, had I sat down on one of the wooden benches, when I saw my first bird table visitor, a marsh tit. Gorgeous little birds, but in common with other members of the tit family, they don't hang about for long, but grab a seed and fly off with it.
Next to visit was another of my favourite woodland birds,a nuthatch, followed by coal tit, blue tit and great tit. A robin and blackbird also made an appearance as did a couple of grey squirrels. I stayed a while, for a time, being joined by another couple who sat, at a suitable distance on one of the other seats, before taking another path back towards the car park.
I'd been reading on the local Oxfordshire birding blog of a juvenile great northern diver that was currently visiting Farmoor Reservoir so as this bird was not yet ticked off on my year list I decided to make the half hour trip today to go and find it. After a rather cold, murky start to the day, it was brightening up and with little or no wind, I thought the water would be calm enough to take some photos if it was near enough to the bank.
With lockdown in progress I thought, rather naivily that it might be quite quiet there, but no, I was wrong, the car park was full, and many people were taking advantage of the autumn sunshine, including families, joggers, anglers as well as photographers and birdwatchers.
The diver was located in an area of water on the eastern side of F2 which meant only a short walk from the car park (for a change!|) There were a few photographers seated on the wall, and they pointed out the bird to me. It was a fair distance from the bank, but easy to spot on the calm water and obtain a few photographs. Amongst the chat between the birders/photographers I recognised the voice of my cousin, Jon, so joined him ( socially distanced of course) for a chat and subsequent walk across the causeway.
The usual birds were present, great crested and little grebes, cormorants, herring and blackheaded gulls, mute swans and mallards and the usual good numbers of coots.
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