Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

On Wednesday and Thursday this week I was once again on the Mammoth viewpoint for a bit of vis-migging. The outstanding highlight of these two days was the passage of Fieldfares down the Soar Valley. On the Wednesday 2291 Fieldfares passed down the valley between 9.00am and 11.45am, and then the next day another 1760 birds passed through between 8.30am and 11.30am. Other highlights on the two days included a skein of 120 Pink-footed Geese flying over Leicester on the Wednesday and a notable movement of Finch species through the valley on the Thursday which included at least three Bramblings! The full account of what was seen over the two days is logged at the trektellen website here: http://www.trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=810&site=0&land=5&taal=2&datum=20101020 and here:  http://www.trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=810&site=0&land=5&taal=2&datum=20101021

Ring Ouzel at Bardon Hill Brambling at Wanlip North Well with a week off from work I have been down the local patch on most days, Vis-migging from the mammoth, a trip to seaside to find migrants (Gib Point NNR) and finding a few local "Scarces". 10th October: Highlights of the day included a good passage of Redwings (835 birds) and Skylarks (108 birds) over the mammoth in the morning and seeing a Little Egret in the afternoon on the wildfowl count at Watermead CP North/Birstall. Full Details are here: http://www.trektellen.nl/trektelling.asp?telpost=810&site=0&land=5&taal=2&datum=20101010 11th October: A trip to Gibraltar Point NNR today, was actually a little bit poor really. On the migrants front I saw quite a few common migrants but the only birds of note I found were a couple of Ring Ouzels in the east dunes! 12th October: A little bit quieter over the mammoth today, but I did have a Soar Valley year tick in the form of a migrating Brambling ! ...