Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

As of tomorrow evening I will be on my annual Biscay trip and will be on the Pride of Bilbao for the next ten days. I'm hoping for some excellent sightings and will let you know what I see over the next ten days in the Bay of Biscay.

A juvenile Monty's Harrier honest!! Following info via the LROS website, a text from Andy Mackay and a phone call from John Hague I drove over to Burrough Hill CP, as Andy was watching a Harrier Sp flying over the hill. As I got to the hill fort I saw Andy scoping the bird over the nearby pines, joining him I picked up the Harrier as it flew away down the valley. Although it was a Harrier but what species could it be, was it a Juvenile Monty's Harrier or even possibly a Pallid Harrier?! Andy had taken a few record shots of the bird and it looked pretty good for a Pallid Harrier, which was good for me as it would have been a county tick. At this point we were joined by Steve Lister and Andrew Harrop who had just missed the bird as it flew over the ridge. Over the next half an hour or so the bird didn't show and we thought that maybe the bird had buggered off to the south. Andy left us to go home and check his photos of the Harrier to see if it was a Pallid Harrier? Then all

Hi all, here is a list of sightings I saw yesterday down the Soar Valley. Wanlip Meadows LRWT: Most of the sightings were on the scrape (except for the Hobby!) 1 Juvenile Wood Sandpiper 1 Greenshank 4 Green Sandpipers 6+ Snipe 1 Hobby Watermead CP North: 1 Juvenile Sandwich Tern seen on King Lear's Lake between 16.10 and 17.45pm when it flew off low east. 8 Common Terns (including 3 juveniles) over King's Lear's Lake. So looking at the sightings I had a pretty good afternoon down the valley finding a Wood Sand on the scrape and then putting the icing on the cake by the sighting of the Juv Sandwich Tern flying around King Lear's Lake!! Some times local patch working does have it rewards.

Alex Horne enteraining the Birdfair crowd (thanks John for the photo!) Myself, John and my Dad visited the British Birdfair yesterday at Rutland Water, and for once it was an enjoyable experience. Highlights of the day included meeting comedian Alex Horne ( who was doing a shorten version of his excellent live show on Birdwatching Watching),chatting to BBC "One Show" David Lindo about Urban Birding, collecting the new Leicestershire and Rutland Bird Avifauna and Bird report from the LROS stand, playing football with the ORCA team(Whale Madrid) and meeting new and old friends at the social birding event of the year. My Dad was also happy because he spent loads of money on a new camera (Canon D5) and got a good deal, £400 off the usual price!!

Two sleeping Garganeys honest! As the orchid season is coming to a close, I've started Birding again and here is a list of birds I have seen over the last week. 6th August: Eyebrook Res Female/Immature Marsh Harrier 2 Little Egrets 1Black Tern 3 LRP 1 Green Sandpiper and usual raptors! 7th August: Eyebrook Res Juvenile Spotted Redshank Juvenile Wood Sandpiper Eclipse Drake Garganey 4 Green Sandpipers 2 Common Sandpipers and lots of rain! 13th August: Swithland Res Black-necked Grebe Hobby Cossington churchyard 5 Spotted Flycatcher Eyebrook Res Wood Sandpiper Juvenile Peregrine 2 Eclipse Garganeys 2 Greenshanks 3 Dunlins 7 Ringed Plovers .

I checked out a secret site in the north-west of the county (well a wood near Cloud Wood LRWT) and found at least 23 Violet Helleborines in the south-east corner of the wood. Most were around the public footpath which cuts across the wood, but I did find a few off the beaten track.

On Thursday during the rain showers I checking out the Violet Helleborines at Great Merrible Wood LRWT . In between the light and very heavy rain I found at least 74 flowering spikes, with one impressive plant near the path had 18 spikes!! The Helleborines were coming into flower so there should be at there best for a week or so?