A villager rang me yesterday to say she had come across a wader beside the Thames in an exhausted state. It was put under a hedge to avoid predators but when she went back it had died. I took delivery of this today and it proved to be a Knot. Quite what it was doing here, so far from its normal home on the coast, I have no idea. They do turn up in Oxfordshire from time to time but more normally during spring or autumn migration.
Having made the effort to get out of a nice warm house I decided to prolong my agony for a short while by walking down the brook and then along the river. I came across a Kingfisher trying its luck in the brook and, later on the Thames found a Water Rail, 2 female Goosanders, a pair of Wigeon, a Little Grebe and good numbers of Cormorants, Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Tufted Ducks and Gulls (Black-headed, Lesser Black-backed and Herring). Back at home there was a female Blackcap in the garden with large numbers of Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Goldfinches and the usual odd Reed Bunting, Robin, Blue Tit, Coal Tit etc.
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