No, not a new pub, but a genuine black swan
I first saw him on December 5th in South Abingdon on the gravel pit lake nearest to the Marina and he is still there and very much at home with the mute swans (of which there are 2 large families) and a wide variety of other water birds.
(Many thanks to Elizabeth for the report.)
Lovely pictures, Backstreeter. Thanks again for this splendid blog.
Ditto ppjs. The black swan is a real treat, but since moving back to South Abingdon I’ve been reminded just how much wildlife we have here? Last summer a pair of European Cranes flew over, this year I’ve so far spotted a Cetti’s warbler, shrike, little Egret and barnacle geese, further down stream there are six Egyption geese. Most evenings a pair of Barn Owls can be seen quartering the fields between Wilsham and Culham rd and on the ground a beautiful Reynard gives much pleasure to us,
When I moved into South Abingdon we used to see many hedgehogs. Now they have all gone. Could it be the spread of housing estates? Apparently hedgehog numbers are decreasing.
@Janet
There are still occasional hedgehogs to be found in South Abingdon, but you’re right, they do seem to be on a decline.
The use of slug pellets doesn’t help (shame on anyone who still uses them) as well as the habitat fragmentation caused by our obsession with big fences.
Perhaps those of us in South Abingdon should try to join a gardens together (http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/pages/link-your-garden.html) to form a large hedgehog friendly habitat?
Good to see this black swan on the Big Birdwatch weekend, even if I couldn’t add it too MY list!
First ever spotting of a great white egret fishing in the River Stert on Sunday. Very exciting.
Not quite a first John, while cycling through Boxhill Woods in September 2014 en route to collect our grand daughter from Saint Nicks my wife and myself watched in amazement at a pair of Egrets walking quite nonchalantly along the river Stert,