Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

Here is a few photos of one of the Bitterns at Watermead CP North reedbed view from Crake hide yesterday.

I had a good day in the Soar Valley today with a new year tick in the form of the returning Oystercatcher at Watermead CP South. Other sightings I saw in the park included the long-staying Redhead Smew still on the "Pec Pit", a fly-over Pintail also at Watermead CP North (which I saw later at Cossington Meadows) "Jocky" the Scottish-ringed Cormorant at the Birstall section and "Harold" the Whooper Swan on the water ski pit with the other Mute Swans. Moving onto Cossington Meadows whilst looking for Jack Snipe I flushed a Bittern from the reedy pool next to the footpath which goes to Sileby, then I saw a nice female Stonechat and a couple of Little Egrets on the upper marsh section of the reserve. Finishing with the Owls, the small crowd enjoyed at least three Short-eared Owls and two Barn Owls hunting over the Swan Meadow and the Moor.

Along with my mate John Hague and Pete Jessop we have all decided to do a Soar Valley year list. The challenge of the year is to see hopefully up to 140 species over the year. So the first week highlights have been the elusive Bittern at Watermead CP North, the "down at your feet" Mandarin on Worcester Lake, up to six Woodcocks in the recording area and the Owl show at Cossington Meadows. So going to press I have currently seen 71 species in the valley, with John on 74 species and Peter not too far behind. So as there said "Game on!?"........................

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...