Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

Just a quick note to say well done to Pontypridd RFC for winning there semi-final game against Aberavon in the Konica Minolta cup. Ponty beat Aberavon 33-10, with tries scored from Gavin Dacey,Gareth McCarthy,Kristian Baller and Chris Clayton. Next up for Ponty is Neath RFC in the final on May 17th, and going by current form, Ponty will be the underdogs for this match,but hopefully as it's the year of underdog, Ponty can produce a shock result?

aren't rares and seabirds brill ant!! Myself and John, left Leicester at around 6.30am to get to Rother Valley CP, near Sheffield just after 7.30 am to look for a Yankee Wigeon. John then phoned Mark Reeder (one of the Drunkbirders crew!), who was still in bed were the best place to see the American Wigeon he had found a couple of days previously. He told John that the best place was the main lake or the far bank, were the bird had been seen the previous day. As we checked out the main lake, there was no sign of the Wigeon, so we walked down the track to the far bank, but again there was no sign of the bird in the surrounding area. Walking slowly back up the track I saw a Wigeon species flying and landing on to the main lake. It was the American Wigeon ! Over the next hour, initially the wigeon wasn't playing ball, but after twenty minutes, the Wigeon flew over to the near bank, and give excellent views, to which John got some decent shots of the bird. By this time, the main t...

A very wet dawn chorus! Another early morning start for myself and John, as we guided the LRWT Leicester group around Prior's Coppice LRWT for the dawn chorus walk. Although it rained for most of the walk, good numbers of common species were heard and seen, with highlights included a calling Tawny Owl , at least four Marsh Tits , and singing Grasshopper and Garden Warbler . The last two were year ticks to boot. After finishing the walk we move on to Robin-a-Tiptoe Hill, near Tilton, were John promptly found a male Ring Ouzel distantly feeding round the top of the hill. The Ring Ouzel was a nice find, but there nothing much else to report, so myself and John went back to Leicester for some breakfast at a local McDonald's ( This is the only meal I will eat at McDonald's!), and then dropping off John at his home. After a short power nap at home, I was woken by phonecall from Jez Robson, who had just seen the Bittern again down at Cossington Meadows. As you can imagine I dro...

Following an early start from Leicester at around 5.00am, John, myself and the Wearside Whippet (aka: Brian), drove over to the "Brecks" on the Suffolk/Norfolk border for a day trip around Norfolk. Our first port of call was Weeting Heath NWT to look for Stone Curlew and WoodLark . Arriving first at the West hide, we soon located two pairs of Stone Curlews in front of the hide, and as you can imagine we took quite a few photos of the Curlews. Moving on to the East hide, like the Stone Curlews we soon located a singing Woodlark quite close to the hide. Again the group took a few photos of the performing Woodlark. The other notable sighting we had on the reserve was of an adult Stoat giving grief to the local Lapwings and the large population of rabbits. From Weeting Heath, we then went to Lakenheath RSPB reserve. The last time I went to this reserve about five years ago, it had no facilities, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a new visitor centre and a build up of new ha...

Since Thursday last week my internet has been down. I have made a number of phonecalls to India (site for BT Homehub technical support?), and it looks like the problem is now fixed! Hooray!! Thanks is due the technical staff and the engineer who came round this morning.

Due to problems with my internet(See other post), I will include a brief description of the spring migrants I have seen over the last week. 14th April 2008: Warren Hills. Ring Ouzel and two (male and female) Wheatears . 15th April 2008: Soar Valley(Wanlip Meadows) . 1 Little Egret. 16th April 2008: East Leicestershire(Eyebrook Res). Yellow Wagtail(3) and 1 Ringed Plover. However the major highlight of the day was connecting with the refurbished Vulcan Bomber flying over the Leicestershire countryside, on my way home! 17th April 2008: Soar Valley area (Cossington Meadows) and Eyebrook Res. 1 Dunlin, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Cuckoo, 1 female Wheatear, 1 Little Egret and 1 Sedge Warbler at Cossington Meadows. 1 " Blue-headed Wagtail " and 10+ Yellow Wagtails at Eyebrook Res in the afternoon. 18th April 2008: Thornton Res. 1 male Redstart.

 Over the last couple of days I have been checking out Beacon Hill and Warren Hills hopefully to see if I could find a Ring Ouzel. Saturday 12th April : Starting at Beacon Hill, I usually checked the fields by the top car park, as the previous year I found at least three Ring Ouzels in the these fields. Although the weather wasn't favourable for spring migrants, the top fields had over the previous last couple of days produced three Ring Ouzels ( which I had missed), up to five Wheatears , a splendid looking male Redstart ( which I had seen!) and a newly arrived Tree Pipit. So walking round the top fields the only thing of note I could see was a couple of Willow Warblers singing and a Tree Pipit near the summit of the hill was a slight disappointment of what had happen in the previous days. Moving on to Warren Hills, like Beacon Hill, it was still pretty quiet, with the only sightings of note was of two Wheatears (Male and Female) in the lower fields next to Cha...

With John Hague leaving me a message on my phone in the morning just before work, about that Andrew Cliff had just found three Ring Ouzels in the fields opposite the top car park at Beacon Hill. As I couldn't do anything until I had finished work, I didn't get to Beacon Hill until 5.00pm, were I met John by the track overlooking the cattle fields at the top car park. John let me know that the Ring Ouzels had not been seen for at least three hours, but the fields did have three Wheatears (a male and two females), and a beautiful looking male Redstart in then. Although all the birds were a bit distant, the weather made it very difficult to take any digiscope shots. Over the next hour I check the surrounding area for the Ouzels, but my luck was out, as there was no sign of the birds. On the way home,I checked out Cropston Reservoir, and finally saw a couple of House Martins hawking over the reservoir, with a mixed flock of Sand Martins and Swallows .

Following a phone call from John Hague about a Yellow Wagtail at Thornton Res, I made my way to the reservoir via the weekly food shop at Morrison's. Parking at the small car park at the opposite end to Thornton village, I met Mark Skev just along the track, as he was trying to take a photo of the local Little Owls. Although the Little Owls were not showing, I did pick up the male Brambling, which John had found earlier and was showing well in trees further along the track. Mark took a few shots of the bird until it flew off up to the nearby hedge.Following this sighting Mark showed me the Yellow Wagtail which was in the nearby Cattle field, with at least one White Wagtail and a good number (c.25) of Pied Wagtails. With time pressing, I left Thornton Res, had a quick tea, and then picked up John, to go to the LRWT ( Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust) Leicester group meeting. The talk was about Leicestershire Bats by Nathalie Cossa, and was really interesting...

Well done Cardiff City for reaching the FA Cup final, for the first time since 1927. The "Bluebirds" beat Barnsley 1-0, from an excellent volley scored by Joe Ledley. Although Pompey are probably favourites to win the cup this year, I wouldn't rule out the "Bluebirds" causing an upset?

Over the weekend I have been in Hereford, celebrating my Auntie Mary's and Uncle Jim's 50th Wedding anniversary. It was good to see the extended family,most of whom I haven't seen for the last ten years! On the Saturday before the party,I went to see Hereford United play Chester City at Edgar Road, with Elwyn (my cousin Anne-Marie husband)and his Dad. Most of the match Hereford were the better team, scoring two goals in the first half from Ben Smith and Gary Hooper, and looked like cruising to victory until Chester's Kevin Sandwith hit a spectacular shot in the 68th minute to score for the away side, and then in the final minute, all hell was let loose, when the ref gave Chester a penalty for a supposed hand ball, to which Kevin Ellison dispatched with great ease into the top corner. To say Elwyn and his Dad were gutted, was I think probably an understatement, also I think the other 3,000+ Hereford fans were not best pleased with the decision from the Ref! So at the fin...

Following news from the LROS website the previous night, I checked out Melton Airfield for the reported Snow Bunting in the afternoon. Driving to the site,I didn't realise that the site was so large until I drove onto it, and then knew it was going to be an uphill struggle to find the Snow Bunting, as a needle in a haystack came to mind! Parking next to the strangely isolated industrial estate in the middle of the former airbase, the only birds I saw was a few Skylarks and Meadow Pipits in the surrounding area. Mark Skev who had the same idea as myself, joined me at the industrial estate to look for the bird, but like the previous hour of me searching the area, there was still wasn't any sign of the bird by any derelict buildings or any pallets!!

After a report on my pager about a pair of Garganey at Eyebrook Reservoir, I left work as soon as possible. Arriving at Eyebrook just after six in the evening, the first sighting I saw was a "fish rat" flying over the reservoir as I approached the inflow end, which was good to see.Parking the car not far from the inflow end, I spoke to Chris Lythall, who had only just lost sight of the two Garganey, when the fish rat flew over the reservoir. Scanning the inflow end we soon relocated the pair of Garganey on the far bank, which were feeding on the shoreline. At this point I took a few record digiscope shots of the two Garganey. I must admit when it comes to ducks, I think Garganey is probably my favourite duck species, and it is always a pleasure to see them, even in eclipse plumage! Other sightings I saw at the inflow end included two nice looking Black-tailed Godwits , the long staying Green-winged Teals , at least four Little Ringed Plovers and a couple of fly-through Swal...

Well I have finally cracked, and maybe it has something to do with the BBC right wing agenda about Immigration constantly in the news. I'm sick to death, about people complaining about Immigration, and being little xenophobic englanders. I would just wished people looked at their family history, and realise that EVERYONE in this country was an Immigrant! I think it has something to do with the Ice age, and the migration of people into this land mass!? Also maybe people memories are very short sightened, but didn't this country fight a war less than 70 years ago, against the fascists and Nazis, who had the same ideas about the right wing agenda, the BBC, Daily Mail and the Tory party aspire to at the moment? Any way rant over for the time being, normal service will return shortly!