Farmoor Reservoir is home to good numbers of pied wagtails which may regularly be seen along the causeway and waterline as they actively search for insects. It is also sometimes possible to see grey wagtails at the reservoir edges too.
However, in early April, they are joined by their cousins, yellow wagtails, which can be seen along the causeway as well as in the grass edges close to the Thames water processing plant .
Despite the cold temperatures, the wind appeared to have dropped sufficiently this morning, to make the stroll along the causeway bearable though I made sure I had my hat and gloves with me. Even so, it was barely above freezing when I arrived at 9.30 a.m. and initially I was dismayed to see the large numbers of cars already parked up with a lot of people milling around. On enquiring, I found it was a children's sailing week ( rather them, than me in this cold weather!) so, as they had not started their lessons yet, I decided to set off before there was too much disturbance from boats.
I crossed the causeway but only saw a couple of pied wagtails as I walked into the wind. I noticed some great crested grebes, mallards and cormorants on the water, and black headed gulls were calling noisily from the rafts. Good numbers of martins ( sand or house?) were flying low above the water on my arrival - I couldn't tell through my binoculars but someone told me they were house martins- but they disappeared after a while.
After walking down to the Pinkhill nature reserve I could see some birds on the feeders ( reed bunting, great tit, blue tit, goldfinch) and heard chiffchaffs, willow warblers, black cap and cettis warbler. Mallards were feeding underneath so it was unsurprising the water rail didn't make an appearance.
Back on to the causeway I was half way across, when I noticed a photographer sitting on the raised wall, taking pictures; there was a group of wagtails feeding actively at the edge of the water betweeen me and where he was positioned about 30 metres away. Amongst them were a couple of 'white' wagtails' - a subspecies of the pied wagtail that are greyer and whiter than the pied wagtails. After a while, a couple of vehicles passed and disturbed them but I spoke to the photographer who said that there had also been a yellow wagtail amongst them earlier on and sure enough as I walked on further, I spotted a yellow bird on the wall. However it flew off as I approached.
As I continued walking, I kept my eyes peeled, and shortly afterwards, I located a further group of three yellow wagtails which, again, were very flighty. They were feeding amongst some pied and white wagtails, but kept being disturbed by a pedestrans crossing the causeway which were becoming more numerous as the morning wore on. Eventually I managed to take one or two reasonable photos before leaving a cold and increasingly windy Farmoor and after warming myself with a flask of coffee in the car, I headed home,
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