January to July inclusive: a seven-month test of patience
2024 started quietly and for the first seven months, things continued in that vein. The only birds of note leading up to spring migration were a Water Rail on 10th January; the earliest singing Willow Warbler in the county on March 20th; quickly followed by the Lye Valley’s fourth record of Mute Swan on March 24th:
Spring migration saw a very brief Common Redstart and the second Common Grasshopper Warbler reeling away on the golf course. It is always a pleasure to hear these birds in the city:
But that was about it. Looking at the last four years of coverage, for the first two-thirds of 2024, it was the quietest year yet. Only when the summer “death zone” of mid-May to early August came to an end, did the dark blue line begin to pick itself up:
August to December: an astonishing autumn
But what an autumn it was and how the year turned around. 2024 saw me complete my 700th patch visit, achieved over a total period of six years. Adding new species becomes increasingly difficult the more one visits an area, so I was unprepared for what was about to occur. I noted that exactly one year and one day had passed since the last addition to the Lye Valley bird list, a superb Corn Bunting on 17th August 2023. Perhaps these gaps of over a year between new species were going to become normal now?
In fact, the autumn saw an astonishing sequence of bird records in the Lye Valley area from early August until early November. In this 12-week period no less than five new species were added to the Lye Valley list, plus I somehow managed to pull back the only species on the Lye Valley list that I have not seen. Virtually a new species every other week, for several months. It was insane! Inevitably, it started with duck.
Records of flyover duck species that are not Mallard are extremely rare. The lack of any open water doesn’t help. In the last six years, there is a single nocturnal record of Eurasian Wigeon, a single record of Eurasian Teal in a spell of freezing weather and two records of flyover Goosander in winter. So when a small, compact duck appeared flying low and fast over Warneford Meadon on August 18th, the last thing I was expecting was a Common Pochard, the 108th species recorded here:
Incredibly, the 18th August produced not one, but two new species for the Lye Valley area. Forty minutes after the Pochard flyover, a movement on the roof of the Churchill Hospital alerted me to a stonking Northern Wheatear. This was one of the first autumn records of this species in the county, and was a long-anticipated addition to the Lye Valley area bird list, although the location of this bird was completely unanticipated! Species numnber #109:
Another species of chat that I thought would turn up eventually was discovered on 25th September. After 684 patch visits, a female-type European Stonechat finally appeared in Churchill Meadow, feeding in the rain, a few hundred meters south of where the Northern Wheatear was a few weeks previously. Species #110:
The 5th October 2024 will live long in the memory. The second-ever record of Marsh Tit, was a great start. Just like the first bird, it was very mobile, passing through scrub on the golf course:
Whilst walking back around the edge of the hospital, I then stumbled across patch gold, a superb Yellow-browed Warbler, feeding in willows between Warneford Meadow and the hospital:
The Yellow-browed Warbler remained for week, and was even seen by a number of other birders. It is the rarest bird that I’ve found in the Lye Valley area, being the 26th Yellow-browed Warbler found in Oxfordshire, in what was a very good autumn for this species across the country.
Another species that also moved through the UK in much higher numbers than usual was Hawfinch. The last big Hawfinch year was 2017/8 when birds were even found in the Lye Valley woods, although this was just before I began covering the area. Being such an uncommon and secretive bird in Oxfordshire, I had given up all hope of seeing this species on my patch. However, with Hawfinches being widely reported across southern England throughout October, I began mounting daily dawn vigils, with the hope of seeing or hearing a flyover bird. My wish came true on 30th October, when 2 Hawfinches flashed over Warneford Meadow, calling:
Whilst flyover Hawfinches are one thing, to find a Hawfinch perched up on my patch was entirely another. A week later, a scan through a feeding thrush flock was brought to an abrupt halt by the distinctive shape of a Hawfinch, feeding on rowan berries, a superb Oxford city record. I had entered the realms of fantasy!
The next addition to the Lye Valley area bird list was slightly less shock-inducing. A flyover Great Black-backed Gull has long been on my radar, even though this species is relatively sedentary in the county. On November 2nd this bird became the 112th species recorded in this area of urban Oxford:
But the year was not over yet. A tip-off from a dog walker revealed only the second-ever Western Barn Owl hunting over Warneford Meadow, captured here on my phone video:
There was a brief Woodcock on November 9th, this species is just about annual here in November. That Woodcock became the 82nd species recorded in the Lye Valley area in 2024, making it the second-best year in terms of species recorded, after the record-breaking year of 2023, with 87 species. This was quite some turnaround from the very quiet first half of the year. There was one final surprise in store. On December 11th, a series of distant honking sounds materialised into four fabulous Whooper Swans, that flew north-east over Headington and species number 83 for 2024:
The lesson here is “don’t give up”. Ride out the quiet periods, because if you know that your local patch attracts migrant birds, then there will always be something eventually. The astonishing autumn of 2024 produced Yellow-browed Warbler, two Hawfinch records, four Whooper Swans, Common Pochard, Woodcock, Western Barn Owl, European Stonechat, Northern Wheater and Marsh Tit, all within a tiny area of urban East Oxford. This autumn may never be beaten, in terms of quality species!
The full illustrated list of all 112 bird species recorded in the Lye Valley area can be found here. Now let’s see what 2025 has in store. Happy New Year all!