Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

Over the last week I have added another species for the City year list in the form of two sightings of a couple of Ravens (113) over Watermead CP South and Birstall Meadows. Other birds of note over the last week at Watermead have included two twitchable Arctic Terns (Adult and Juvenile) and a brief flock of 7 Ruffs on the island yesterday (These birds were later relocated on the Rectory marsh at Cossington Meadows LRWT). With the weather looking good for Seabirds over the next few days I will try and check the Soar Valleys sites on a regular basis hoping for a sighting of a Sabine's Gull or even a Skua sp!?   Photos of the Adult Arctic Tern! And finally I am counting down the days until my annual trip to Shetland (19days from today!), and this year I will be staying in Cunningsburgh.

Since returning from Slovenia last week, I have been checking out the Soar Valley for more ticks to my city list. So from the previous weekend before Slovenia I have added the 8 Garganey , Shelduck , Whitethroat , Sedge and Reed Warbler at Watermead CP South. Then added Green Sandpiper and Little Ringed Plover at an undisclosed site in the city boundaries. This followed with Swallow , Common Sandpiper and Common Tern a couple of days later at Watermead South. Then yesterday checking out Birstall Meadows I found a corking Male Wheatear feeding in the fields near the shoreline! So with these sightings I'm now on 90 species for my City list!!

Over the weekend I checked out a couple of sites and added two year ticks to my list. This came in the form of a Cetti's Warbler at Watermead CP South and a female Pheasant at Birstall Lodge Farm. With these birds my list is now up to 73 species for the city challenge!

As I have been on annual leave this week I have been checking a few sites in the city boundaries for the Leicester year list. With Western Park on my door step it was quite logical to check this site first! So over a couple of hours walking round the park I found at least four year tick in the form of Lesser Redpoll , Siskin , Jay and Nuthatch. The other usual suspects included at least 4 Great Spotted Woodpeckers,Green Woodpecker, and good numbers of finches. The next site I checked was just in the city boundaries at Birstall Lodge Farm, next to Birstall golf course. At this site I had been informed that Yellowhammer and Grey Partridge had been seen in the last few days, so parking on the old Thurcaston road, I scanned the fields and straight away I picked up a group of 7 Red-legged Partridges , a singing Yellowhammer and then totally out of the blue a Woodcock flying over the new Thurcaston road! GET IN!! Another 3 year ticks on the list! Buoyed with these new ticks the fina...