White Stork in Cholsey & Benson or was it Shillingford?

A murky and wet day, 10°, light NE.

A very different day today. I got back from Lollingdon this afternoon feeling quite damp after walking back in the rain.

After drying off I fired up my laptop and saw an email from Stephen Haigh with a photo attached asking if it was a Stork.

I downloaded the pic and enhanced it a bit and indeed it was a White Stork photographed over the Vets yesterday.

Shortly after I noticed a FB post by Michi Laxton to the Benson Nature Group saying he had spotted a White Stork in a Field opposite the Benson Café.

(Was it in Benson or Shillingford?).

Putting 2 & 2 together I thought I’d better alert someone, so I phoned Tom Stevenson of the BNG and he went to check it out and about 30 minutes later he had confirmed that there was a White Stork there.

At that point I phoned a few people to alert them to the news and managed to get a lift over myself with Alan Dawson to see it.

We arrived onsite at around 15:30 and saw the bird almost immediately in a field on the other side of the river.

In the time we were watching it up to around 20 people managed to get there to see it and eventually it flew off to the NW at approx. 16:40.

Whilst watching the bird both Geoff Wyatt and Badger noted it had a green ring on its right leg with the code Z9404.

Now this is where tech comes in to play, Geoff Wyatt made a call to Ian Lewington and between them and Badger we found out that the bird had been ringed in Poland in 2011 and had subsequently been sent to and rehabilitated in Norfolk after flying into some overhead cables and sustaining an injury. It and another had then escaped and is now flying free.

Not sure if it has been staying in the UK or migrating south each year and it had been seen in Oxfordshire in 2017 on Otmoor.

This is the 2nd record of White Stork for Cholsey, the 1st being 5 on Cholsey Hill on the 26th April 2012.

Whilst there I saw a small flock of around a dozen Sand Martin flyby, a Kingfisher and a Willow Warbler.

Back to this morning there was a female Wheatear on the Hill and around 10 Swallow appeared from the murk with several staying to feed flying around amongst the sheep.

Several Chiffchaff and Blackcap noted but little else.

Mammals: Roe Deer.

 The original and cropped photo of the Stork over Cholsey yesterday (courtesy Stephen Haigh)

 7 photos of the White Stork in Benson/Shillingford today. the last but 2 taking an earthworm and the last one of it flying off.

 A couple of rubbish shots of Swallows feeding around the sheep.