Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

After finishing work yesterday afternoon I nipped down to Watermead CP South to check out the gulls. In the car park I saw the regular colour ringed Norwegian birds JAN4 and J2KT and a ringed bird which was most likely the bird from Denmark?! After taking a few photos of the gulls I then drove over to Swithland Reservoir to see if the reported Whooper Swans were still around? With luck on my side stopping by the stone wall on Kinchley Lane, I saw the 11 Whooper Swans briefly on the water and then the group started honking and then took off! The group circled the reservoir a couple of times and then flew off in a north-east direction. With camera in hand I took a few shots of the Whoopers flying around the reservoir before disappearing over Buddon Wood. With the Whoopers gone I checked the female Velvet Scoter was still in the middle of reservoir, it was!... After these sightings I decided not to push my luck and called it a day on the birding front!... ...

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

Here is a few shots of at least two new colour-ringed Black-headed Gulls I saw today at Watermead CP South. Also noted in the nearby Swan flock was a Juvenile/first summer type Whooper Swan (maybe son of Harold?!).

Since the euphoria of finding the Ring-billed Gull at Shawell it's back to normal service again! Going to work on the late shift and checking out the Soar Valley in the morning if I have time? So over the last few days I have missed the two drake Smews down at Watermead CP South as the weather was crap and my bins and scope just steamed up every time you tried to look through them. I did however finally heard the male Cetti's Warbler singing at the same site a day or so later which put my list now on 82 species for the year. Other sightings before the Ring-billed Gull find (sorry Skev, yep I'm milking it!) on the same day included the Ross's Goose of unknown origin, 2 Green Sandpipers, small groups of Tree Sparrows and " Harold" the Whooper Swan on and near the flooded fields at Wanlip North Lakes/GPs.