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Avocets at Eyebrook res Although it was my day off from work, I had to do a few things in town, so I couldn't get over to Eyebrook Reservoir until the afternoon, as a pair of Avocets had been reported at the inflow end. Getting to the reservoir early afternoon, I was soon ticking off Avocet for my slowly increasing year list. The two birds were were feeding on the shoreline and not too far from the viewing point, so I decided to take a few digishots of the birds. Whilst at this site other sightings I saw included the long staying Green-winged Teal , a female Pintail (which was a year tick!) and one of the local Red Kites . After leaving Eyebrook I checked out Cossington Meadows, one of my local patches in the Soar Valley before returning home. Birds I recorded included 3 Little Egrets , 3 Little Ringed Plovers , a couple of Oystercatchers and finally a couple of Swallows flying over the tern pool.

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...