Leicestershire and Rutland Birding/Local Patches (1 Viewer)

Adey Baker · Sep 11, 2008

Many other counties/areas have threads for general information on birds and birding sites, so I thought I'd start one for Leicestershire and Rutland, which are recorded together as vice-county 55 in official reports.

The website for The Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society (LROS) has a Latest News page which is updated more or less daily: http://www.lros.org.uk/News.htm giving details of the most interesting birds of the day with photos of the scarcer ones but there's room on this thread for more details of access, other birds, other nearby sites, etc., which are beyond the scope of the LROS site which is basically run by one man when he has time!

Likewise, the Birding Sites page: http://www.lros.org.uk/birdingsites.htm can be expanded here with newer info and more sites, etc.

I often look into the 'Warwickshire/West Midlands Local Patches' thread and use the info there to make forays 'over the border' and I'm sure Warks/WM birders would be grateful for extra info when contemplating going for one of our (occasional!) good birds!

So post away all you Leics/Rutland folk and ask away anyone else...

laesevets · Sep 11, 2008

Adey Baker said:
Many other counties/areas have threads for general information on birds and birding sites, so I thought I'd start one for Leicestershire and Rutland, which are recorded together as vice-county 55 in official reports.

The website for The Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society (LROS) has a Latest News page which is updated more or less daily: http://www.lros.org.uk/News.htm giving details of the most interesting birds of the day with photos of the scarcer ones but there's room on this thread for more details of access, other birds, other nearby sites, etc., which are beyond the scope of the LROS site which is basically run by one man when he has time!

Likewise, the Birding Sites page: http://www.lros.org.uk/birdingsites.htm can be expanded here with newer info and more sites, etc.

I often look into the 'Warwickshire/West Midlands Local Patches' thread and use the info there to make forays 'over the border' and I'm sure Warks/WM birders would be grateful for extra info when contemplating going for one of our (occasional!) good birds!

So post away all you Leics/Rutland folk and ask away anyone else...

Hi Adey.
Nice one mate lets hope it takes off, keep it up.
Steve.......

Adey Baker · Sep 11, 2008

laesevets said:
Hi Adey.
Nice one mate lets hope it takes off, keep it up.
Steve.......

All we need now is some nice birds in accessible sites to set the ball rolling.

nick the grief · Sep 12, 2008

Adey Baker said:
All we need now is some nice birds in accessible sites to set the ball rolling.

so do we :-O:-O

Good luck with the thread:t::t:

Adey Baker · Sep 12, 2008

I had hoped to enter the first sightings into this thread from my regular Friday afternoon stroll around my local patch, but the weather had other ideas. I think I'll try to find a waterfall to walk through next week as it might be a bit drier

Still, it was a good excuse to check out how waterproof some of my lightweight 'waterproof' clothing really is (it isn't:eek!

Adey Baker · Sep 14, 2008

Today at Brascote Pits:

57 Common Snipe
8 Golden Plover over
2 Little Owls

Croft Hill:

2 Garden Warblers
15 Comon Buzzards over Croft Quarry (no Honey Buzzards, though :C)
1 Painted Lady

Steve Lister · Sep 14, 2008

Watching the sky around Charnwood this morning.......
20+ Common Buzzards very obvious but no HBs (wonder who reported the six 'probables' over Swithland Res)
5 Hobbies, three of them probably migrants
3 Ravens
Small movements of Mipits and Swallows

Steve

Adey Baker · Sep 14, 2008

Steve Lister said:
...but no HBs (wonder who reported the six 'probables' over Swithland Res)...

They haven't appeared on the LROS website so you have to wonder...

Carl went back to Brascote Pits this afternoon and had an Osprey, though, so some BOPs were on the move.

Adey Baker · Sep 15, 2008

Adey Baker said:
Today at Brascote Pits:

57 Common Snipe
8 Golden Plover over
2 Little Owls

Croft Hill:

2 Garden Warblers
15 Comon Buzzards over Croft Quarry (no Honey Buzzards, though :C)
1 Painted Lady

Ooops, got a bit over-enthusiastic with the Snipe 47 not 57!

Richard Powell · Sep 15, 2008

I'd just like to say it's great to see a thread for Leicestershire/Rutland. :t:

Burton is my home town, but I never birded round Bardon Hill at Coalville. That always used to produce Ring Ouzels in the spring and autumn, just wondered if it has produced anything recently?

Adey Baker · Sep 15, 2008

Richard Powell said:
I'd just like to say it's great to see a thread for Leicestershire/Rutland. :t:

Burton is my home town, but I never birded round Bardon Hill at Coalville. That always used to produce Ring Ouzels in the spring and autumn, just wondered if it has produced anything recently?

Still a good spot for spring Rouzels, though not sure about autumn.

I can't recall anything recently on the LROS news page. The July/August records will be in the next newsletter but the most recent bird I can find in previous newsletters is a Crossbill on May 2nd.

I suppose that, like anywhere else, it needs regular working to find the good birds. We've had a spate of decent records recently at Croft Hill which is less than half the size of Bardon (and, like Bardon, has been nibbled away by the adjacent quarry!). There are many days when we don't find anything out of the ordinary but every now and then we hit a purple patch - I dipped the recent Pied Flycatcher, though |

|

Richard Powell · Sep 15, 2008

Cheers Adey

I know what you mean about regular coverage. I live near to Stoke these days, and a place like Berry Hill (in Stoke itself!), turns up all sorts of stuff you would'nt believe. And again, some days aboslutely zip. But that's the beauty of local patch birding.

Any Coalville birders should take a walk up there!

Adey Baker · Sep 20, 2008

A touch of winter possibilities with 6 Siskins at the northern end of Burbage Common yesterday (and a fly-over Lesser Redpoll as well).

Today, we had a foray over to the extreme west of the County to try to find Corn Buntings. None appeared, but a flock of c80 Golden Plover and a couple of dozen or so Tree Sparrows in the Orton on the Hill/Norton-Juxta-Twycross area.

Steve Lister · Sep 21, 2008

My first 'vismig' session at Deans Lane (Woodhouse Eaves) this morning.....
30 Siskins
50 Mipits
3 Grey Wagtails
And a few hirundines

Plus a nice Red-necked Grebe on Swithland Res for its second day.
Told some visitors about it but they forgot to return the favour when they were watching what they thought was a Honey Buzzard ignoring us locals just a few yards up the road admiring the grebe.

Steve

davidearlgray · Sep 21, 2008

Steve Lister said:
My first 'vismig' session at Deans Lane (Woodhouse Eaves) this morning.....
30 Siskins
50 Mipits
3 Grey Wagtails
And a few hirundines

Not much down the Soar Valley this morning, 30+ meadow pipits over Cossington Meadows between 10.30 and 12.00pm.

Plus a nice Red-necked Grebe on Swithland Res for its second day.
Told some visitors about it but they forgot to return the favour when they were watching what they thought was a Honey Buzzard ignoring us locals just a few yards up the road admiring the grebe.

So that will be Common Buzzards then!( Recently had up to seven C.Buzzards over the reservoir)
Also had two Common Buzzards over the Wanlip Sewage works this morning.

Adey Baker · Sep 25, 2008

Richard Powell said:
...I never birded round Bardon Hill at Coalville. That always used to produce Ring Ouzels in the spring and autumn, just wondered if it has produced anything recently?

A Woodlark reported there today (from LROS news page) on the south side of The Mound + 2 Tree Pipits and 2 Bramblings.

Woodlark is a really difficult species to catch up with in the county - has anyone twitched one successfully or do you have to dig out your own

Richard Powell · Sep 26, 2008

I noticed that as well. Also Ring Ouzel reported at Bardon Hill today.

A small number of Woodlark are present in Notts and Staffs, I'm not saying where for obvious reasons (so there eggers!). But perhaps it's more likely this one was a longer distance migrant. Certainly got the conditions for it.

Adey Baker said:
A Woodlark reported there today (from LROS news page) on the south side of The Mound + 2 Tree Pipits and 2 Bramblings.

Woodlark is a really difficult species to catch up with in the county - has anyone twitched one successfully or do you have to dig out your own

Adey Baker · Sep 26, 2008

Richard Powell said:
A small number of Woodlark are present in Notts and Staffs, I'm not saying where for obvious reasons (so there eggers!). But perhaps it's more likely this one was a longer distance migrant. Certainly got the conditions for it.

A quick check through some old annual reports shows all of the reported ones since 2000 have been flyover jobs. A few in the late 1990s were actually on the ground, including a party of 6 at Gumley in 1998, but even these were one day only sightings.

The next one to hang around could be well received by county listers (of which I'm not one) - so instant popularity for the finder!

Adey Baker · Sep 27, 2008

A walk around my local patch in yesterday afternoon's warm sun produced nothing too exciting, though a Grass Snake was sunning itself along 'Snake Alley' on Burbage Common and the rather pale Buzzard below 'posed' on a hedge at Elmesthorpe - ie it didn't fly away as soon as it saw me on the horizon. It still needed a converter on my lens plus interpolating up in photoshop plus a heavy crop to get it looking reasonably close!

Steve Lister · Sep 27, 2008

Adey Baker said:
Woodlark is a really difficult species to catch up with in the county - has anyone twitched one successfully or do you have to dig out your own

Not that difficult if you make the effort - this (the Bardon bird) was the fifth that I have seen/found in the county. I deliberately left it on the ground and put the news out straightaway in the hope that others could see it.

Steve

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