Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

Gloucester v Ospreys Gloucester v Ospreys again! Cardiff Blues practicing tackling! Drake Scaup at Swithland Res Grey Heron at Cossington Meadows Well over the weekend I celebrated my 40th birthday, watched a bit of rugby and did some birding on the Sunday. Firstly on the Friday night I spent a few good hours in The Orange Tree celebrating my birthday and would like to thank my friends for all the cards and presents I received. On the Saturday in the morning I felt like death warmed up!! and was in two minds if I should go to the EDF semi finals in Coventry due to me feeling so ill. But after have a bit of breakfast which didn't come straight back up I decided that I might be OK to go. So in the afternoon I joined the good numbers of different supporters at the Ricoh Arena. The first match of the day was Gloucester v Ospreys and I must admit it was a rubbish game, loads of handling errors, defences cancelling each other out, and a number of injuries to players who might be going on...

Although the weather has been nice for the last few days, a small trickle of spring migrants has occurred in the county. For most of the week I have spent a lot of time down at Shawell tip and the Balancing Pool watching the gulls. Including the Kumlien's Gull I have also seen another 1st winter Iceland Gull at the tip and pool from the previous birds at Stanford Reservoir and Albert Village. Other gulls recorded at this site have included the usual suspects and a nice looking adult Caspian Gull . In the surrounding countryside I have recorded up to 14 Buzzards, a small population of Tree Sparrows and a couple of Shelducks. Away from this site I've started to check out a few sites in the Soar valley and Charnwood again with a few spring migrants recorded. These have included a couple of Sand Martins over the scrape at Wanlip Meadows on the 15th and a single bird over Birstall Meadows on the 22nd. I have also noted Chiffchaffs singing at Swithland Reservoir, Cossington Mead...

2nd Winter Kumlien's Gull at Shawell. Another shot of the Kumlien's Gull. 1st winter Iceland Gull at Shawell Balancing Lake. Another shots of the 1st winter Iceland Gull. Over the last couple of months it has been a great winter for seeing and finding white winged gulls like Iceland Gull and Glaucous Gull. As I normally recieved most of the local bird records for the fieldnotes in the LROS newsletter, it has been interesting reading over the last month or so. Up to the present day so far at least ten Iceland Gulls , 1 Kumlien's Gull and maybe 3 different Glaucous Gulls have been recorded in Leicestershire? With hopefully a couple of more weeks to check the local tips before most of the gulls disperse to there breeding grounds I would imagine a few more white-winged gulls maybe found?

2nd Winter Kumlien's Gull-Shawell Balancing Lake. More views of the Kumlien's Gull Following info via text message from John about Neil Hagley had found a Kumlien's-type Gull at Shawell Tip and Balancing Lake the previous day, I knew were I was going birding for the next few days. There had been a bit of a discussion on the gull via birdforum and by the locals about the photos of the bird. So arriving at the tip just after 9.30am I met up with Neil and Tim (from Warwickshire) who were watching a large group of gulls on the tip face. Neil had seen the gull around 8.30am feeding on the tip, but it had disappeared for the last twenty minutes into a large dip opposite the tip face. As Neil had to go to work, myself and Tim then walked down the nearby footpath opposite the gravel works entrance to view the tip. Scanning the tip for a few minutes we still could not see the Gull, so we then decided to check out the nearby balancing lake. Driving round to the balancing lake opposi...

Sometimes you think why did I bother going out Birding as this was one day when nothing went to plan?! The plan of the day was originally for myself, John and Brian to go to Norfolk, but as John had a bit of man flu we decided that it wasn't the best idea to be stuck in a car for two hours with someone coughing up there guts!! So me and Brian decided instead to check out a few sites in Leicestershire. Well to cut a long story short, we dipped on any Jack Snipe in the Soar Valley , there was no interesting Gulls at Albert Village Lake , no sign of any Corn Buntings at Oakthorpe and to top off a great day absolutely nothing of note at Swithland Reservoir !!! Hopefully as spring is approaching this day will be a distant memory when I'm chasing the spring migrants all over the county in the next few months?

Following info via the LROS website and John Hague's text message, the destination for most of the day was Swithland Reservoir as the reported Bittern had finally become viewable from the causeway. The Bittern had been around for at least month but had been skulking in the private sections of the reservoir, so I expected a bit of a crowd for most of the day to view this delightful Heron. Although I got to the causeway around 10.00am I met up with Ben Croxtall and disappointingly he said that there was no sign of the bird! So after about two hours of staring at the same clump of reeds I decided that maybe the Bittern wasn't going to show and also I had to nip into University to sort out some plans for my final assignment so I drove home for some lunch and then onto University. After my tutorial I decided to return to Swithland Reservoir to finally see if the Bittern had shown in the afternoon. Arriving back at the causeway I met up with Allen Pocock and Norman Hall who had just...

Six Scaup at Rutland dam Tawny Owl at Great Easton Record shot of a Short-eared Owl at Great Easton. Over the last week I have checked out Albert Village lake on a number of occasions and nipped over to Eyebrook Reservoir and Great Easton for the owls. Sightings at Albert Village have included an adult Caspian Gull and an adult Yellow-legged Gull but no sign of any of the recent white-winged gulls. It seems that later in the week (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) is probably the best days to visit this site as the gull numbers seem to increase over the week until the Sunday when the local tip is closed. Moving onto Eyebrook Reservoir which I hadn't visited for a couple of months I finally connected with the long staying Green winged Teal at the inflow end. Other sightings on the reservoir included two nice looking drake Smews by the island, a flock of 50+ Dunlins at the inflow end and at least 30+ Tree Sparrows at the bird feeders. The last destination of the day was the field...