Boar’s Hill

With my parents visiting for the day on Saturday (23rd Jan) I decided that a quick walk around Boar’s Hill was in order. It was the first time that I had taken them there, and no trip to Oxford is complete with a climb up Jarn Mound to look at the dreaming spires. However, on reaching the top all that could be seen were some trees and some cranes that could be made out in the direction of Oxford (somebody had also taken the map with the direction and distance to towns in the area off of its stand). Undeterred I led the way in the direction of Chilswell Farm, walking through the woodland produced Nuthatch, Jay and Bullfinch, with the pond just in front of the Farm holding a Mallard and two Moorhen. The path wasn’t the best, with it being quite muddy, luckily I had my wellies on even if they were still cold and wet from the morning. Heading back to the car past Chilswell House (where they were better views of Oxford even if it was a bit gloomy) and onto Ridgeway Road produced a year tick- Peacock! (A bit of a sneaky one, but I count it!) The whole walk was in one tetrad, so it wasn’t difficult to add my records onto BirdTrack and a managed to increase the tetrad total by a few species.

Species total: 17

Distance walked: 2.5 miles