Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

Just a quick note to say well done to Pontypridd RFC for winning there semi-final game against Aberavon in the Konica Minolta cup. Ponty beat Aberavon 33-10, with tries scored from Gavin Dacey,Gareth McCarthy,Kristian Baller and Chris Clayton. Next up for Ponty is Neath RFC in the final on May 17th, and going by current form, Ponty will be the underdogs for this match,but hopefully as it's the year of underdog, Ponty can produce a shock result?

aren't rares and seabirds brill ant!! Myself and John, left Leicester at around 6.30am to get to Rother Valley CP, near Sheffield just after 7.30 am to look for a Yankee Wigeon. John then phoned Mark Reeder (one of the Drunkbirders crew!), who was still in bed were the best place to see the American Wigeon he had found a couple of days previously. He told John that the best place was the main lake or the far bank, were the bird had been seen the previous day. As we checked out the main lake, there was no sign of the Wigeon, so we walked down the track to the far bank, but again there was no sign of the bird in the surrounding area. Walking slowly back up the track I saw a Wigeon species flying and landing on to the main lake. It was the American Wigeon ! Over the next hour, initially the wigeon wasn't playing ball, but after twenty minutes, the Wigeon flew over to the near bank, and give excellent views, to which John got some decent shots of the bird. By this time, the main t...

A very wet dawn chorus! Another early morning start for myself and John, as we guided the LRWT Leicester group around Prior's Coppice LRWT for the dawn chorus walk. Although it rained for most of the walk, good numbers of common species were heard and seen, with highlights included a calling Tawny Owl , at least four Marsh Tits , and singing Grasshopper and Garden Warbler . The last two were year ticks to boot. After finishing the walk we move on to Robin-a-Tiptoe Hill, near Tilton, were John promptly found a male Ring Ouzel distantly feeding round the top of the hill. The Ring Ouzel was a nice find, but there nothing much else to report, so myself and John went back to Leicester for some breakfast at a local McDonald's ( This is the only meal I will eat at McDonald's!), and then dropping off John at his home. After a short power nap at home, I was woken by phonecall from Jez Robson, who had just seen the Bittern again down at Cossington Meadows. As you can imagine I dro...

Following an early start from Leicester at around 5.00am, John, myself and the Wearside Whippet (aka: Brian), drove over to the "Brecks" on the Suffolk/Norfolk border for a day trip around Norfolk. Our first port of call was Weeting Heath NWT to look for Stone Curlew and WoodLark . Arriving first at the West hide, we soon located two pairs of Stone Curlews in front of the hide, and as you can imagine we took quite a few photos of the Curlews. Moving on to the East hide, like the Stone Curlews we soon located a singing Woodlark quite close to the hide. Again the group took a few photos of the performing Woodlark. The other notable sighting we had on the reserve was of an adult Stoat giving grief to the local Lapwings and the large population of rabbits. From Weeting Heath, we then went to Lakenheath RSPB reserve. The last time I went to this reserve about five years ago, it had no facilities, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a new visitor centre and a build up of new ha...

Since Thursday last week my internet has been down. I have made a number of phonecalls to India (site for BT Homehub technical support?), and it looks like the problem is now fixed! Hooray!! Thanks is due the technical staff and the engineer who came round this morning.

Due to problems with my internet(See other post), I will include a brief description of the spring migrants I have seen over the last week. 14th April 2008: Warren Hills. Ring Ouzel and two (male and female) Wheatears . 15th April 2008: Soar Valley(Wanlip Meadows) . 1 Little Egret. 16th April 2008: East Leicestershire(Eyebrook Res). Yellow Wagtail(3) and 1 Ringed Plover. However the major highlight of the day was connecting with the refurbished Vulcan Bomber flying over the Leicestershire countryside, on my way home! 17th April 2008: Soar Valley area (Cossington Meadows) and Eyebrook Res. 1 Dunlin, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Cuckoo, 1 female Wheatear, 1 Little Egret and 1 Sedge Warbler at Cossington Meadows. 1 " Blue-headed Wagtail " and 10+ Yellow Wagtails at Eyebrook Res in the afternoon. 18th April 2008: Thornton Res. 1 male Redstart.

 Over the last couple of days I have been checking out Beacon Hill and Warren Hills hopefully to see if I could find a Ring Ouzel. Saturday 12th April : Starting at Beacon Hill, I usually checked the fields by the top car park, as the previous year I found at least three Ring Ouzels in the these fields. Although the weather wasn't favourable for spring migrants, the top fields had over the previous last couple of days produced three Ring Ouzels ( which I had missed), up to five Wheatears , a splendid looking male Redstart ( which I had seen!) and a newly arrived Tree Pipit. So walking round the top fields the only thing of note I could see was a couple of Willow Warblers singing and a Tree Pipit near the summit of the hill was a slight disappointment of what had happen in the previous days. Moving on to Warren Hills, like Beacon Hill, it was still pretty quiet, with the only sightings of note was of two Wheatears (Male and Female) in the lower fields next to Cha...