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Frog Orchid Here is a couple of photos of the six Frog Orchids I found last Friday at Merry's Meadows LRWT. Frog Orchid

Bird's-Nest Orchid | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

On Sunday after finishing my early shift at the General I checked out Watermead CP South and noted at least one Hobby hunting over the pits. With this sighting my city year list is now on 104. Whilst at this site my Birdnet pager mega'd to inform me of a Collared Flycatcher at Holme NWT, Norfolk. I was reluctant to go due to Sunday evening traffic, but as Neil Hagley texted me about the bird, I saw the light and we decided to twitch the bird. Cutting the long story short, myself and Neil were on-site by 7pm and ticking the bird off by 7.10pm. Get In Collared Flycatcher OMFL!! Although I have probably missed the mobile White-tailed Eagle in Lincolnshire (That's another story and it's getting personal now!!), the sighting of this fantastic bird now puts me three short of 450 BOU!!

Here is the latest update on the city year list: Spotted Redshank OMFL!!  With the morning off before work in the afternoon, I checked out the usual Soar Valley sites. Sightings included the Temminck's Stint and Wood Sandpiper at Wanlip Meadows LRWT and a mobile Black Tern at Watermead CP North. It wasn't until I got to Birstall Meadows that I struck gold, when I found a Spotted Redshank feeding on the floods! GET IN! 103 for the city year list! As usual I sent a few texts around and phoned John Hague about the bird. This was only the second time I had seen Spotted Redshank down the Soar Valley, so really a bit of mega for the site! With a few more easy ticks to come, I am now targeting to get at least 115 species for my year list!?!

Here is a couple of digishots of the Temminck's Stint at Wanlip Meadows LRWT I saw yesterday. I think this is the eighth bird to be recorded on the scrape at Wanlip in the last ten years, so you can say Wanlip Meadows has a bit of a track record for attracting these little waders!! Record shot of the Temminck's at Wanlip! Better record shot of the Temminck's Stint at Wanlip Meadows LRWT!

Last Thursday after checking a few sites around the city with Mark Skevington for the City year list I some how ended up at Cloud Wood LRWT to see if any Early Purple Orchids were in flower? Well to cut a long story short, I found at least 200+ Early Purple Orchids in the wood with most in flower. Then checking out the Great Butterfly Orchids I found a few which were amazingly coming into bud! (at least three weeks early). Please with what I had seen I then suddenly noticed another orchid close to the path, which I knew straight away as Bird Nest Orchid!! To put this in context, Bird Nest Orchid hasn't been recorded in Vc 55 (Leicestershire and Rutland) for almost thirty years!! The last recorded sighting was in 1983 in the same wood. Keeping calm I took a few record shots of the orchid, and then let a few people know of the sighting. Getting back home I downloaded a few photos of the orchid and was more than happy after referencing the orchid on the net. So with Bird Nes...

Following news the previous evening of a Female Ring Ouzel at Aylestone Meadows and with my day off from work the first port of call was Aylestone Meadows. Meeting up with Mark Andrews and Roger Davis on site it wasn't long before I increased my city year list in the form of a singing Lesser Whitethroat , a fly-by Red Kite (GET IN!!)  and then finally the female Ring Ouzel as it flew across the horse paddocks by the King's Lock Cottage. Pleased with the tally so far I then cycled through the Meadows hoping for a Gropper, but instead found a Garden Warbler singing near the Mill Lane Entrance (Another year tick!). A brief stop near the boardwalk resulted in no sign of the Groppers, so it was off to Watermead CP South. Hoping for some Terns at Watermead, I slowly scannned around the main lake, when suddenly I noticed what looked like a smaller swan with the other Mute Swans. Hang about this is a Bewick's Swan I thought!! GET IN!! A Soar Valley tick and City tick to boot...