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Birds in the Park
Photos of birds taken near Milham Ford Nature Park
Red kites are often seen flying above the Park and their loud calls can be heard all over this area.
Photos of birds taken near Milham Ford Nature Park
Red kites are often seen flying above the Park and their loud calls can be heard all over this area.
5 January 2024: Edward Cervetto reported seeing a kingfisher in the park.
He'd previously seen one there in March 2022. One was first spotted in 2021.
No sitings of special interest reported in 2023
If you manage to take a good photo of a visiting bird that's an unusual visitor to the Park,
please send it to the email address given here and it can be put on this site.
(It may be a few days before you get a reply.)
He'd previously seen one there in March 2022. One was first spotted in 2021.
No sitings of special interest reported in 2023
If you manage to take a good photo of a visiting bird that's an unusual visitor to the Park,
please send it to the email address given here and it can be put on this site.
(It may be a few days before you get a reply.)
Saturday, 29 January 2022 was the day for that year's RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey. Peter Somogyi, with four other people, carried out a survey in the park from 11 am to 12.20 pm. He concluded: 'Beautiful day, but where have all the songbirds gone? Sad when mallard, carrion crow and woodpigeon top the list in our prime habitat - I do not understand it Consolation was a beautiful green woodpecker feeding on the ground - not such good news for the ants!'
The results (below) were uploaded to the RSPB:
The results (below) were uploaded to the RSPB:
12 September 2022 More photos and another video of the grey heron, Ardea cinerea, this time fishing and swallowing its catch, received from Diana Samii. They are in a Google album, together with her earlier photos and video, here The last reported sighting of the heron in the park this year, so far, was on 14 October. |
21 July 2022 Received from Diana Samii: a short video of the Milham Ford Heron, with the note: 'Following the photos of the Heron I sent in June, we captured the heron on a short video while it was attempting to catch something in the water. It didn’t proceed. But the video shows the swallowing reflex and, amazingly, a raptor-like forward movement! Dinosaurs and birds … ' Video is here [The bird's stealthy movements make the video seem to be in slow-motion but the waving reed in the foreground shows it's normal speed.] For photos Diana sent in June, scroll down to photo and item of 24 May 2022.
24 May 2022 Diana Samii captured some lovely shots of a heron in Milham Ford Nature park and one of an Eyed hawk-moth, Smerinthus ocellata - those and her later photos of the heron, full size, are here. For earlier heron sightings, see below.
24 May 2022 Diana Samii captured some lovely shots of a heron in Milham Ford Nature park and one of an Eyed hawk-moth, Smerinthus ocellata - those and her later photos of the heron, full size, are here. For earlier heron sightings, see below.
19 March 2022 Edward Norris Cervetto spotted a kingfisher in the park - photo - Ed's note: 'Appreciating that the resolution of my phone isn't good at this distance, that is a blue Kingfisher on the twig sticking out of the pond'. Ed had seen a heron in the park 'a dozen times at least'. A kingfisher was seen there a few times in 2021, first by Georgina Bygott.
4 October 2021 - evening
This grey heron was seen in the park. The full-size photo is here. On the same day, all five of the moorhen youngsters were in a different pond area with mum. Dad was in a separate pond area. See Wikipedia entry re 'heronries'. According to a local resident, there are only two of them in Oxfordshire, neither of which is near Oxford. However, herons have been in Marston Meadows for some years and in March and early April 2022 one could often be seen perched on a wooden post near the weir visible from the Marston to Oxford city centre cycle track. A heron (very likely to be the same one spotted in October) was photographed in the park in the summer of 2021 by Chris Brewer, a regular visitor, who said the bird 'comes and goes' .
Photo by Chris Brewer - full-size photo is here. See Wikipedia entry re 'heronries'. According to a local resident, there are only two of them in Oxfordshire, neither of which is near Oxford. However, herons have been in Marston Meadows for some years and in March and early April 2022 one could often be seen perched on a wooden post near the weir visible from the Marston to Oxford city centre cycle track. A grey heron was seen previously in the park on 14 April 2020 and 8 September 2017 - see entries for those dates below. August 2021
A pair of moorhens with five chicks had taken up residency in the park Photo by Chris Brewer, 12 Aug 2021. His photos, full size, are here. On 4 October 2021 all five of the youngsters were spotted in a different pond area, together with mum (photo here). Dad was seen in a separate pond area. On 17 March 2022 one lone moorhen was spotted near the ponds. |
8 May 2021 When Peter Somogyi checked on a 'terraced' three-compartment nesting box in the park, he found blue tits just hatching at one end and great tits hatching at the other end, with only 40-50 cm between the two nests and 60-70 cm between the two entrances. He reported 'Tits compete for food and nest sites; it is quite extraordinary to have nests so close. Obviously, there is a housing shortage in Milham Ford just as in the rest of the country. If anyone has heard or read about a case of blue and great tits nesting 50 cm apart, please let me know before I send our claim to the Guinness Book of Records'. To see Peter's composite photo showing the 'terraced' nesting box and the blue tits and great tits in separate compartments, click here. More information is given in the photo's caption (click on white circle with an 'i' in it, above photo)
No owls nesting in the park this year, but the nestbox made for them had stock dove eggs on 8 May..
No owls nesting in the park this year, but the nestbox made for them had stock dove eggs on 8 May..
2 May 2020 Professor Peter Somogyi, a regular FoMFNP volunteer, provided lovely photos of birds' nests and their occupants in the park (shown below). The first two (great tit incubating eggs and blue tit chicks) were taken by him and the third (tawny owl chicks) by Turkish scientist Dr Ahmed Tugrul Ozdemir, who in 2019 joined a postdoctoral research group led by Professor Somogyi in the Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit at Linacre College, Oxford. This is the first tawny owl nest in the park; three chicks hatched from four eggs. The owl box was installed in 2014 with the help of another Turkish scientist, Dr Gunes Unal, who for two years was also a member of Professor Somogyi's research team. To see the photos full size, click here. BBC: Seven things you didn't know about owls
Early in April 2020 Peter reported that a tawny owl had taken up residence in one of the nesting boxes. He said 'I am surprised, as there are so many old trees in our area, they can't have had a problem finding natural nest holes, but, who knows, may be this pair hunts mainly in Marston meadows and the noisy pair in the Pullens Lane area is a second pair'.
Early in April 2020 Peter reported that a tawny owl had taken up residence in one of the nesting boxes. He said 'I am surprised, as there are so many old trees in our area, they can't have had a problem finding natural nest holes, but, who knows, may be this pair hunts mainly in Marston meadows and the noisy pair in the Pullens Lane area is a second pair'.
14 April 2020 A local resident, Elizabeth Yates, was walking in the park in the afternoon when a heron flew down and alighted on the grass. It was chased away by a crow, which, Elizabeth said, chased it off even more aggressively when it tried to land again.
8 September 2017
Grey Heron seen in the park and photographed
First thought to be a piece of wood, as it was standing so still at the edge of a pond. 'They can stand with their neck stretched out, looking for food, or hunched down with their neck bent over their chest', RSPB website. It took off when the photographer (Marilyn Cox) got nearer but landed again for a short while before flying away.
8 September 2017
Grey Heron seen in the park and photographed
First thought to be a piece of wood, as it was standing so still at the edge of a pond. 'They can stand with their neck stretched out, looking for food, or hunched down with their neck bent over their chest', RSPB website. It took off when the photographer (Marilyn Cox) got nearer but landed again for a short while before flying away.
5 April 2020 Peter Somogyi (pictured below) reported that a tawny owl had taken up residence in one of the nesting boxes. He said 'I am surprised, as there are so many old trees in our area, they can't have had a problem finding natural nest holes, but, who knows, may be this pair hunts mainly in Marston meadows and the noisy pair in the Pullens Lane area is a second pair. Surely this is a first for the Nature Park'.
In April 2014 Peter added a large nest box for Stock Doves to other nest boxes he had made himself and installed in the Park. He has taken some wonderful photos: Great Tits in one of the boxes on 21 April 2012, Blue Tits on 12 May 2012 and Stock Doves on 4 June 2015. The stock doves had a second brood in July and a third in September - a total of 6 chicks that year.
The photos below of Blue Tit chicks (left) and Stock Dove chicks were taken by Peter on 22 May 2016. The stock doves were back in 2017 but unfortunately 2018 was a bad year for them. In May Peter found that a grey squirrel had built a nest on top of one of the eggs in one of the stock dove boxes and another box had a squirrel in it. On 7 July he found that only part of a wing remained in another. The chicks are likely to have been taken by an owl - an owl had been heard at night on several occasions around that time.
In April 2014 Peter added a large nest box for Stock Doves to other nest boxes he had made himself and installed in the Park. He has taken some wonderful photos: Great Tits in one of the boxes on 21 April 2012, Blue Tits on 12 May 2012 and Stock Doves on 4 June 2015. The stock doves had a second brood in July and a third in September - a total of 6 chicks that year.
The photos below of Blue Tit chicks (left) and Stock Dove chicks were taken by Peter on 22 May 2016. The stock doves were back in 2017 but unfortunately 2018 was a bad year for them. In May Peter found that a grey squirrel had built a nest on top of one of the eggs in one of the stock dove boxes and another box had a squirrel in it. On 7 July he found that only part of a wing remained in another. The chicks are likely to have been taken by an owl - an owl had been heard at night on several occasions around that time.
9 March 2016
Ellen Lee, one of the regular FOMFNP volunteers (seen bird-watching in the photo below), flushed out a Common Snipe from some reeds near the pond while looking for frogspawn. This is the first time a Common Snipe has been seen in the Park. Photo from Wikipedia, where there's information on Snipes, including a recording of the 'drumming' sound made by the male - scroll down that page to box on right of 'History. There's a video of a Snipe on the RSPB website (as well as an audio) |