There have been a number of reports of gargeneys at some local birding sites in Oxfordshire, so I was pleased to read that a pair had been seen yesterday at Farmoor Reservoir which is only 25 minutes from home. I checked the blog again this morning and I was pleased to see that that they were still present although had been been heard rather than seen from the Pinkhill hide.
As a result, I headed there soon after I got home from work. Walking across the causeway I got chatting to another lady who was hoping to see them, especially as she'd never seen a drake garganey before. She was laden with a large camera and tripod, binoculars and a second camera.
We reached the hide, and admittedly I was expecting to find it fairly busy but there was only one gentleman there who hadn't even known about the garganeys!
At the feeders there were the usual tits and occasional reed bunting but the area of water and reeds in front of the hide appeared empty. We waited for about 20 minutes, but the only thing of interest was a Peacock (4) butterfly flying too and fro in front of the hide occasionally settling on the reeds. (Yesterday I found a tatty Small tortoiseshell (5) in the garden.)
Then I suddenly noticed a couple of small ducks which had appeared on the other side of the water, and a a quick check through my binoculars confirmed they were the garganey pair we were hoping for. These little dabbling ducks are summer migrants to the UK, and are often found amongst reeds - they are fairly secretive so not often seen.
There were quite a few reeds directly in front of the hide which blocked our view somewhat but we we were able to watch them swim about for a few minutes before they retreated once more to the reeds at the back of the pond. For the next three quarters of an hour we only had occasional glimpses of them behind some distant reeds; meanwhile a heron flew down and then off again after a few minutes.
Eventually however, we spotted them re-emerging from the reeds swimming across in front of us ( though often blocked by reeds) before deciding to preen themselves in a small patch of grass at the back, mostly out of sight!.
I decided it was time I went back to the car at this point; across the causeway I came across 4 dunlin at various intervals which were the first I'd seen at Farmoor this year.
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