A County Tick and a Local Area Tick in One Weekend

The weekend started well when I found a Whimbrel in a field in the west of Leicestershire. I then made my way over to Stanford Reservoir where a nice gathering of waders was present although most of them were in Northants. My phone rang as I was scanning for new birds: it was Dave Gray calling to let me know that a Great Reed Warbler was at Albert Village Lake. The only record of this species in Leicestershire & Rutland was way back in 1963.

I made my way back along the Northamptonshire side of the reservoir stopping to admire a subtle looking second-summer Caspian Gull. Stanford Res. is not the best place to be when heading for Albert Village Lake, but it didn't take too long to get there with the help of the M1.

The Great Reed Warbler was very vocal, but elusive wasn't the word. After about three hours I managed to get one brief view of it. I don't think anyone else did much better than a brief view.

Well done to Rhys Dandy, Dave Gray, Ben Croxtall & Marc Lansdowne for breaking the highest day total for Leicestershire & Rutland with 121 species and finding the Great Reed Warbler in the process.

On Sunday morning I announced to Dawn that I was going out to find a Grey Plover for my 'South-West Leicestershire List'. I missed one last year at Brascote Pits when I was on holiday in Portugal, so I needed to make amends  Things didn't go quite to plan, as it was actually Adey Baker who saw the it first. Adey called Grey Plover and I was on it about a second later. We had been grumbling about the lack of good birds at Brascote these days, but we shouldn't lack faith! I was really chuffed to see another good wader species in the area some describe as the desert of Leicestershire.

Here's a short video showing the beautiful summer-plumaged Grey Plover...

Grey Plover, Brascote Pits, May 7th 2017