Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

029Whooper Swan WCPS 23312 , a photo by davidearlgray on Flickr.

017 WhooperSwan WCPS 23312 , a photo by davidearlgray on Flickr.

Here is a few record shots of the pair of Garganeys at Easthorpe Bridge, Bottesford yesterday. Ok a photo of the drake Garganey! and again... ditto...

Well I nipped over to Plungar, Vale of Belvoir yesterday on my day off to try and connect with the Great Grey Shrike which had taken up residence in the area for maybe the last few days. From the last twitter message I received, the bird was still in the fields off Long Lane between Plungar and Barkestone-le -Vale. Parking near the Barkestone-le -Vale cross-roads I walked back to the public footpath between the two villages and met up with the Brett family who were scoping the bird in a nearby hedge. It's always nice to see Great Grey Shrikes in Leicestershire, as these birds are not recorded annually in the county! So after watching the bird for about an hour feeding on the ground and nearby hedges, I decided to head back to my local patch of Watermead CP via taking a few photos of Belvoir Castle... So driving down Wood Lane towards to Branston I stopped the car just past some ruined barns and took a few photos of Belvoir Castle in the distance. Th...

A kicking tune!!...

One of the films I looking forward to seeing!...

A banging tune!...

 Over the last week, myself, Mark Skevington, John Hague, Brian Moore and Steve Lister have been recording the number of different colour-ringed and ringed gulls at Watermead CP South car park and duck feeding area. Regular birds have included VO28 from Denmark , JAN4 fron Norway and AEH1 from Germany on a daily basis. Last week Mark also found a new colour ringed bird with the code VH85 on it and found out that the bird was from Denmark. However over the last few days we have now tried to read just the ringed birds as well in the car park!From photos taken of the birds we have found a Finnish bird and yesterday a bird which John and Steve saw last week we were finally able to read most of the ring and the bird was ringed in Lithuania!! Here is a few shots of the birds mentioned above: JAN4 from Norway! VO85 from Denmark The finnish bird! VO28 from Denmark

Yesterday I did the final wildfowl count of this winter at Watermead CP North/Birstall sction. The main highlights included a very photogenic male Mandarin Duck , 3 singing Chiffchaffs , a single Green Sandpiper by the Pec pit and a white plastic bag trying it's hardest to be a Little Egret in the cormorant colony. What was also go to see was that "Jocky" the Scottish ringed Cormorant (FCX)  was still around the pontoons on Worcester Lake. A male Mandarin duck on John Merrick's Lake!

Here is a collection of photos of the colour ringed Gulls I have seen over the last two years at Watermead CP south. I know most people complain about the locals feeding the ducks with bread at Watermead, but it does have a knock effect with many Gulls attracted to this site due to the free meal!! Any way thanks to Steve Lister and Neil Hagley for getting me into reading and photographing the colour ringed Gulls!... JAN4 from Norway VO28 from Denmark CMK from the Severn estuary group 2H64 from Wiltshire N322 from Spain V192 from Denmark   

Here is a few photos of the Gulls at Watermead CP South yesterday, which included two colour ringed birds from Norway (JAN4 and J3NO). JAN4 J3NO 2nd Winter Lesser black-backed Gull

Here is a few more shots of the Whooper Swan at Watermead CP South.