Friends of Lye Valley

eBird Checklist - 9 Feb 2026 - Lye Valley & Warneford Meadow - 37 species Submitted by Tom Bedford.

Inner city #patchgold this morning, with the first Woodcock since Nov 24 in Boundary Brook woods. My 7th Woodcock record in over 7 years, but the first outside of November/December. Perhaps an elusive wintering bird? 🤯

ebird.org/checklist/S2...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#ukbirding

A view down a shallow valley. There is short vegetation in the foreground, and a boardwalk runs from bottom right and winds its way along the valley. There's a row of bare trees starting top right, and a few trees on the left. Upper centre there's the sun captured as a star burst. There are a few fluffy white clouds in an otherwise blue sky.

A #landscape view of winter #sunlight over Oxford's Lye Valley fen for today's #BlueSkyArtShow theme.
(Or if anybody's lost a star, I've got it! 😀)
@friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Try the Fungus Survey of Oxfordshire (FSO) for a start
www.fungusoxfordshire.org.uk

A medium sized bird with light grey head, back and tail has a lemony yellow and white chest and tummy. It's facing to the right of the photo, standing in shallow water with its left leg raised. It's almost perfect reflection is below it.

For @robcrank68.bsky.social's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #Reflections, here's a Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) looking for insects.
#birds #UKWildlife #photography #EastCoastKin #LyeValley #Oxford @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Dreich is good for the #fen (lots of rain...) if not people; but tomorrow promises to be the one dry day this week. Wednesday is volunteer day in the valley. Why not visit and chat to us about all the good works for wildlife we are achieving?

No chance of ours flowering in January, they've all been scythed off!

The upper part of the photo shows blue sky filled with white fluffy clouds. Low down and to the right the sun is setting, with visible rays coming from it. The rest of the scene is a shallow valley with a boardwalk running from the foreground into the distance. There are trees on either side, and low green vegetation either side of the boardwalk.

I've shared this photo before, but it seems like a perfect candidate for today's #BlueSkyArtShow. Sunset over Oxford's Lye Valley with #altocumulus #clouds. A #SSSI, it's a 14,000-year-old internationally rare habitat, a tufa-forming valley-head alkaline spring fen. #Landscape #EastCoastKin

Hazelnut catkins

Hazelnut catkins

This single Redwing was singing on Warneford Meadow, Oxford, this morning, quivering its tail as it did so:

macaulaylibrary.org/asset/649952...

Odd to hear Redwing and Blackcap singing simultaneously! Hazelnut catkins were another #SignOfSpring 👌🏻

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#ukbirding

Great Spotted Woodpeckers in aerial pursuit (picture from 2022 at the same site).

Great Spotted Woodpeckers in aerial pursuit (picture from 2022 at the same site).

The local Great Spotted Woodpeckers are fully into the aerial pursuit phase of their breeding season. Three birds were chasing each other continually over the Lye Valley area, Oxford, this morning, giving these calls:

macaulaylibrary.org/asset/649848...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#UKbirding

ML649848039 - Eurasian Blackcap - Macaulay Library Macaulay Library ML649848039; © Tom Bedford; Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom

At least two Blackcaps were in song in the Lye Valley today:

macaulaylibrary.org/asset/649848...

As our wintering birds come from eastern Europe, do these winter singers have a slightly different song from our breeding birds (currently in N Africa)?
#UKbirding
@friendlyevalley.bsky.social

This has been confirmed by DNA analysis as being Cortinarius lividomalvaceus. With oak on a road verge in Oxon. Maybe new to Britain...Hoping to get the verge a County Road Verge Nature Reserve, the first for fungi in county! many other nice woodland fungi here as well #fungifriends

Just turn up on a Wednesday morning around 9 to 9:30, wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty, ideally in wellies and with gardening gloves. Some volunteers only work till 11:00, others till 13:00. Ask for Judy, Rod or Tony. We'd love you to join us!

eBird Checklist - 24 Jan 2026 - Lye Valley & Warneford Meadow - 40 species Submitted by Tom Bedford.

Some winter sunshine triggering ten species into song in the Lye Valley, Oxford, this morning, including the first singing Greenfinches of the year and a very brief burst of Blackcap song (in January!):

ebird.org/checklist/S2...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
@patchbirding.bsky.social
#ukbirding

A medium sized bird facing the camera but with its head down is standing on a large old log. Its head and back appear black, though there's a white stripe on the wing and a blue patch at the base of its back. It's tail feathers are slightly spread out and appear as iridescent greens, purples and blues.

Magpie (Pica pica) displaying its fantastically colourful tail feathers for Rob's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #TailsUp. And to think many people think of Magpies as just being black and white!
#birds #UKWildlife #EastCoastKin #LyeValley #WildlifePhotography

A man in a light blue anorak, dark blue trousers and a cap is raking a pile of cut vegetation onto a drag sheet. There are many other piles of cut material around him. In the background an area with short vegetation. There are green bushes in the background to the right, and bare trees on teh background on the left.

🎵 We're raking in the rain,
Just raking in the rain,
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again 🎵

Despite heavy rain this morning we continued to rake cut material on part of our #SSSI onto drag sheets to build up the soft eroded peat banks of the Lye Brook.
#FenRestoration #OxfordshireFens #OX3
🌰🌍

A small rounded brown bird with a short erect tail is standing on the cut end of an old log facing left. It's highlighted against a freshly sawn log showing light wood still covered in bark.

For @alan678.bsky.social's #BirdOfTheDay theme today I have a Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) on an old log pile in low #WinterLight in Oxford's #LyeValley. Such restless birds!
#birds #UKWildlife #WildlifePhotography #EastCoastKin

@headingtonnews.bsky.social

If you are in the Oxford area on Friday evening, I’m presenting a talk about the birds of the Lye Valley area. It’s a one hour multimedia celebration (sounds and pictures!) of some of the amazing birds recorded in this area of the city. All welcome.
@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
#Oxford #birds

We use them all the time for exactly this reason. 🌍

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon (with prey)

The Churchill Meadow reedbed, the trees of Lye Valley behind.

The first Peregrine Falcon in four years was the highlight over the Lye Valley, Oxford this morning. Also large numbers of thrushes, some Siskins and Redpolls and the first Raven of the year:

ebird.org/checklist/S2...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
@patchbirding.bsky.social
#ukbirding

A medium size bird with brown head, and speckled brown and white chest and tummy is standing on an old small tree stump. It's looking to the left and its eye is in sharp focus. There's a single reed head crossing over the stump leaning to the right. The background is a diffuse mixture of light and darker browns.

For today's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #raptor, here's another Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) from Oxford's Lye Valley.
#birds #UKWildlife #EastCoastKin #NaturePhotography @friendlyevalley.bsky.social @alan678.bsky.social

A view down a shallow valley. Starting at bottom left and leading up through the photo a frost covered boardwalk. Just right of centre in the mid distance a pollarded Willow has branches growing upwards. In the background are some trees mostly hidden by the mist. There's a small patch of warmer sunlight top right in the background. In the mid distance left of centre a solitary figure with his back to the camera.

Another freezing cold start for our volunteers today. Spot the scyther in the mist! 🌍 🌰
#OxfordshireFens #FenRestoration #OX3
@judywebb.bsky.social

ML648748146 - Great Spotted Woodpecker - Macaulay Library Macaulay Library ML648748146; © Tom Bedford; Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom

The first drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker of the year is always a nice moment. This is a typical date for the first bird here in Oxford, plus Nuthatch, Starling, Jackdaw etc on the recording:
macaulaylibrary.org/asset/648748...

@friendlyevalley.bsky.social
@patchbirding.bsky.social
#UKbirding

Just to the right of centre a large bird with a mix of dark and light brown feathers has its back to the camera. It's perched on a horizontal branch with lots of thin twigs growing up. It's looking over its shoulder and its left eye and short curved beak are visible.

For @robcrank68.bsky.social's #BirdOfTheDay theme #MoodyFaces, here's a rather twiggy Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) from Oxford's #LyeValley.
#birds #UKWildlife #NaturePhotography #EastCoastKin @friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Today’s Eurasian Teal was on the stream here 👌🏻

Lye Valley in freezing fog

Cold weather movement of Lapwings on Tuesday 6th January.

Amazing to see how cold weather forces birds into the city. Lapwings overhead on Monday, a flyover Snipe on Tuesday and a TEAL on this inner city stream right by the Churchill Hospital today! Only the 2nd daytime record of Teal in 856 visits!
@patchbirding.bsky.social
@friendlyevalley.bsky.social

Insectivorous birds need Craneflies! Craneflies need wetlands and moist vegetated soils for their larvae. Birds therefore need more wetlands and wet grasslands.

At the right and in the foreground a black and white horse is harnessed to a low orange trailer. There are three men working round the trailer, one of them wearing an orange helmet. There's a large white bag being pulled into position. The floor is covered with cut reed, and there's a tree in the background.

A side view of an all brown horse pulling an orange trailer loaded with large white builders' bags with a man on top of them holding the reins. There is uncut dead reed bottom right and in the background.

Another photo of the horse from the first photo pulling a loaded orange trailer up a slight incline. There is uncut dead reed and some trees in the background.

Before our Friends group took over management of the Lye Valley, the City Council (as landowner) used horses to drag mechanically cut reed offsite. Now, most of the reed is cut by hand, and moved by volunteers! Date of photos uncertain but we think late 1990s early 2000s.
#OxfordshireFens #SSSI
🌍🌰

A small brown bird with a short tail is looking to the right. There are rows of thin snow on the log it's standing on.

A Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) for today's #BirdOfTheDay theme of #snowy bird captures. I remember waiting around for ages to get this photo. I was absolutely frozen!
#birds #UKWildlife #WildlifePhotography #EastCoastKin @friendlyevalley.bsky.social @alan678.bsky.social

A wintry scene. Running from the bottom centre of the photograph a boardwalk with a light dusting of snow heads into the midground before turning sharply to the right and leading through a shallow valley. To the right in the foreground a large clump of browning vegetation. To the left and right of the photo there are trees, while the sky in the background is grey with some lighter areas.

Just the lightest dusting of snow in the Lye Valley at sunrise this morning. Not quite the picturesque scene we'd been hoping to capture!
#OxfordshireFens #OX3 #landscape ❄️
@judywebb.bsky.social

Wow! What a sight!
Where do you suppose they were coming from / heading to?