Tadpole & Chimney.

Another delivery was required today to keep Tree Sparrow Project volunteer Alan Larkman in millet as he was down to his last bag and I arrived at Alan's with 6x25 kg. bags and watched in wonder as the mixed flock of  hundreds of Finches fed on his front lawn and his nearby pony paddock made up of , and this is a rough estimate , two hundred and fifty Chaffinch,two hundred and fifty Linnets, one hundred Reed Bunting fourteen Bullfinch , and twenty Tree Sparrow the main numbers of Tree Sparrows were feeding on the feeders round the back garden, also a party of Long T Tits were active as only they can be active.
We then drove to Chimney to fill up the near depleted feeders and saw many Tree Sparrow, Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer. A flock of mainly Fieldfare I guess some two hundred in number along with one hundred Redwing and one hundred and fifty Starling were searching the grass fields for sustenance and as we walked across the field with the Dexter Cattle in it we were taken by the numbers of Meadow Pipits , probably around fifty, that were scratching what seemed a meagre living from the quite bare meadowland.
The Oxon Feather.

Bullfinch.

Mixed Bag.

Today I delivered bags of Millet to several of our Tree Sparrow volunteers and was rewarded with sightings of A Barn Owl, twelve Tree Sparrows, Two separate flocks of Fieldfare with over one hundred birds in each flock one Kestrel, four Greenfinch, two Mistle Thrush, one grey Heron and about twenty Reed Bunting.
The Oxon Feather.

                                          Distant shot of Tree Sparrow.                                              

Distant shot of Mistle Thrush.

The best Birds Done A Bunk.

An early morning walk from Stanford to Shellingford Quarry and then on to Hatford before returning to Stanford was fairly unremarkable , with about thirty Teal , a pair of Tufted Ducks , a pair of Pochard , one Kestrel a pair of Canada Geese, one Kingfisher and a couple of Partridge that realised it was St. Valentines and had paired up. The Kingfisher and the Grey Partridges done a bunk before I was able to get a photo unfortunately.
The Oxon Feather.

                                           Teal.

                                          Tufted and Pochard.

                                          Canada Goose.

                                                           Pied Wagtail.

Golden Day - But no Sun.

A walk from Stanford to Hatford and then through Shellingford Quarry returning by a circular route to Stanford gave me the opportunity to record one Stock Dove, eight Golden Plover, six Grey Partridge, circa three hundred Teal around twenty Redwing and the same number of Fieldfare two Red Kite and one Common Buzzard although it was rather dank and overcast I saw enough birdlife to lift the spirit in what is just about the worst time of the year for the grey days of winter to be finally dragging us down.
The Oxon Feather.

 Golden Plover

 Stock Dove

 Teal
and Fieldfare

Beating- A bit of Bully

It was beaters day at Carswell Marsh today and I could have taken my twelve bore along and had a shot or two but I find no pleasure in killing animals for fun in fact it seems wrong. Nevertheless I have many friends who do shoot and it is for them to live with their own conscience, and so in the interests of access to a pretty good site I took part wandering and then standing on stop for several hours with of course camera and bins at the ready.
A party of Bullfinch some half dozen in number were feeding on Ash Keys and also noted were four Buzzard, three Red Kite, four Hares, one Roebuck assorted small flocks of Fieldfare and another beater expressed his disappointment that I was unable to photograph the pair of Tawny Owls that he had good close views of due to my being on a different part of the marsh.
The Oxon Feather.

 Bullfinch

 Roe deer at full pelt.

Is it the Light - somethings not Right!

A photo of a Roe Deer taken at Buscot just the other day looks very pale, but of course it is probably just the light playing tricks with me. A look at Shellingford Quarry Sunday was only notable for the two hundred and fifty or so Teal that sprang into the air and whistled round and round until I left whereupon they then quickly settled to carry on doing what they had been previously doing.
A party of some eight Long-Tailed Tits enthusiastically worked the nearby hedges searching for a little Winter sustenance but as usual they did it in their perpetual motion manner.
The Oxon Feather.

Why oh Why ?

Why oh Why?
I get rather irritated each winter when I see those destructive hedge gobbling chopping machines let lose on our countryside by thoughtless farmers. I guess the most remarkable aspect of this nonsense is  these "guardians of the Countryside" invariably choosing the sight of hordes of starving winter Thrushes arriving to start "tidying up" the hedgerows, bashing as many life giving berries into oblivion before they have had the chance sustain both Redwing, Fieldfare and all those other small insect eaters that if given the chance would continue their previous habit of daily grazing these same hedgerows of overwintering insect life in all its developing forms.
The Oxon Feather.
                                                          It's Tough being A bird in the Winter.