Rotherfield Greys Patch (near Henley-on-Thames, Oxon)

[Guizotia]

I planned to patch-list my immediate locality, Henley-on-Thames, this year. But while I was formulating this plan I covered a Bird Atlas Tetrad a few miles west of Henley-on-Thames next to a small village called Rotherfield Greys. I was so impressed by the range of birds that I saw and the beauty of the landscape that it stuck in mind.

I eventually decided to discard my former plans and instead adopt Rotherfield Greys as my 'patch' for 2009. It is literally seven minutes drive from where I live which is local enough for me.

The area I will be walking is defined on this Google Map:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=k&msa=0&msid=109018887994467698508.00045f98799a2b8a961b0&ll=51.528717,-0.952206&spn=0.016553,0.031843&z=15

I have covered 75% of this route on my Bird Atlas work. I am going out to walk it tomorrow with bins only, to get a good feel for it, and to see if the complete route I have defined needs any changes. I hope to cover this patch once a week. I have a Scopac Lite arriving this week so in future weeks I will be able to take my ES80 with me.

I want to try to plot interesting birds I see on the Google Map, as well as mentioning on this thread, so I am going to have to come up with some way to note where I saw something when in the field. I will be submitting all my lists to BirdTrack.

[gareth_blockley]

Excellent. I'll be interested in reading more!

Gareth (North Oxfordshire)

[Guizotia]

Walked my initial planned route today with bins only and noted some changes, which I have now made to the Google Map.

I started at 9am and it was painfully cold for the first hour or so. The ground was frozen.

Most notable was a mixed flock of ~60 Goldfinches and something else, periodically rising and landing in a field of crops or grasses. They were just beyond the range of being identifiable with my 8xs. The 'something elses' were much less colourful than the Goldfinches at that distance, looking fairly uniform in colour, and may have had bars on the wings and white outer tail feathers (Linnet?). Roll on the arrival of my Scopac so I can have my scope with me.

Another notable was an unseen bird that gave an alarm call from a tree HWEEE-HWEE-hwee-hwee-hwee (getting a little quieter with each note). Sounded almost like a dog whimpering. Not sure what that could have been yet. I thought it had moved off because I stared into the tree and couldn't see anything, but I heard it again a few minutes later when someone else walked near the same spot. HAVING LOOKED INTO IT VERY LIKELY A KESTREL

I also got some amazing close, probably 5-6m, views of a Treecreeper who didn't seem at all bothered by my presence.

The full range of species I saw:

Great Tit
Blue Tit
Robin
Woodpigeon
Dunnock
Blackbird
Wren
Lapwing
Goldfinch
Carrion Crow
Jackdaw
Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Fieldfare
Redwing
Bullfinch
Treecreeper
Magpie
Long-tailed Tit
Starling
Black-headed Gull
Kestrel
Nuthatch
Red Kite

[Guizotia]

I did visit this area 5 or 6 times so far this year, mainly for the TTVs, but unfortunately did not get into the spirit of writing about it. I think I'll only visit 1 or 2 times more this year, because I've found a more family-accessible route that also visits an under-(or even un-) recorded pond. For closure, here is a full list of birds seen this summer:

Pheasant
Red Kite
Woodpigeon
Swift
Green Woodpecker
Skylark
Swallow
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
Song Thrush
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Magpie
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Linnet
Yellowhammer