On this page we post any birding or other wildlife-related news we think you might be interested in. If you hear of a piece of news which others might like to know about, send it to for inclusion on this page.

15th April 2008

SCOPE FOR SALE

Oscar Orridge has a Kowa TSN 824 (Fluorite) telescope for sale, with 2 eyepieces: a 20 - 60x zoom and a 32x wide angle, also a stay-on case. Cost £1100 new; offers around £750. If interested, please phone Oscar on 07919 328360. Note phone number was wrong previously!

17th December 2007

NEW OUTINGS ORGANISER

The Society is very grateful to Andrew Cliff, who has volunteered to take on the role of Outings Organiser. The first outing of 2008 will be to Potteric Carr in Yorkshire on Saturday 19th January to look for the wintering Bitterns. For more information, or to book a place, please e-mail Andrew or telephone 01530 814593. Further outings will be announced in due course.

16th December 2007

NORMAN LAMB

Steve Gamble has asked me to report the sad news that Norman Lamb, who was a regular at Eyebrook Reservoir, passed away this morning.

13th December 2007

NEW VENUES FOR INDOOR MEETINGS

After many years at the Adult Education Centre, Wellington Street, we are moving to new venues for our Indoor Meetings. From January 2008 the meetings will be held alternately at the Church Lounge at Oadby Trinity Methodist Church, Harborough Road, (off the central car park) Oadby Leicester LE2 4LA (click here for map), and the Rothley Centre, 12 Mountsorrel Lane, Rothley, Leicester LE7 7PR (click here for map). Both these venues are next to large car parks. There will also be two meetings at the Anglian Water Birdwatching Centre, Egleton reserve, Rutland Water. The full programme can be seen on the About LROS page.

The first meeting is at Oadby on 4th January, when Ann and Phil Farrer will give a talk on 'Mongolia - the birds, scenery and plants'.

28th October 2007

BIRD ATLAS 2007 - 11

Fieldwork starts 1st November 2007 and will span the next four winters and four breeding seasons with the intention of surveying the whole of Britain and Ireland. Here in Leicestershire and Rutland we have 28 10Km squares to cover using two complementary fieldwork methods.

Roving Records – whatever you see, whenever, wherever.
We need to build up complete species lists for each 10Km square. You can all help with this by submitting your general birding records as long as you know which 10Km square you are in. A very simple way of making your birding count.

Timed Tetrad Visits – dedicated counts in specified tetrads.
This basically involves walking around a tetrad (2X2 Km square) for one or two hours recording everything that you see and hear twice in the winter and twice in the breeding season. We are aiming to cover a minimum of eight tetrads in each 10Km square. Tetrads can be requested by contacting your Atlas Regional Organiser.

In Leicestershire and Rutland we currently have over eighty volunteers signed up to help and 229 tetrads reserved but we need much more help. Coverage is especially thin in the northern, western, and southern fringes of our counties, and with 471 tetrads still vacant there is plenty for you to choose from.

Comprehensive information about the Atlas can be found at www.birdatlas.net including maps showing vacant tetrads. Tetrads can be requested online and all results can be submitted online, but if you prefer to use paper forms these are readily available - please e-mail Tim Grove.

1st October 2007

WATERMEAD NEEDS YOU!

The Watermead Country Park rangers are looking for volunteers to help with such things as riverside and reedbed management, patrolling and environmental education. If you think this is something you might be interested in, please click here for more details and contact information (Adobe pdf file - require Acrobat Reader to view).

30th September 2007

ROB FRAY'S SHETLAND WEBSITE

Ex LROS Bird Recorder Rob Fray has set up a website so that, as he says, "you can read all about my exciting and not-so-exciting adventures in Shetland". The site also has a photo gallery with plenty of gripping (and not so gripping) photos of Shetland wildlife. Latest highlights include the male Siberian Thrush on Foula and White-rumped Sandpiper on the Pool of Virkie (virtually outside Rob's front door!), plus for some reason a selection of old photos from Trent Valley Pit. He just can't let go!

The address is nice and easy to remember: www.robfray.co.uk

9th August 2007

NEW PHOTO GALLERY

The new Photo Gallery is now up and running. This has been set up by Richard Fray using a program called Coppermine. This allows us to update the gallery much more easily than the old Photo Archive, as all the thumbnails and pages are automatically created by the software. The gallery is categorised by families (in the same order as the Bird Report), with an album for each species within each family. The database is also searchable by species, photographer, site or date.

At present there are some 200 photos in the gallery, dating back to last winter, which was when we started using higher quality photos rather than the 250 x 180 pixel images previously used on the Lastest Bird News page. Digital photography has moved on enormously since the first 'digiscoped' images appeared on the website about six years ago. The majority of images submitted are now taken using much higher resolution digital SLRs or compact 'superzoom' cameras rather than through telescopes. With this in mind, the minimum size for digital images will now be 700 x 500 pixels, unless there is a good reason for showing smaller images - e.g. if the only available image of a rarity is from a camcorder.

A selection of the more interesting older images may appear at some time in the future; if and when this happens, I shall be asking photographers if they have higher resolution versions available, as the 250 x 180 pixel images look pretty unimpressive compared to the more recent larger ones!

As previously noted in the Announcements box on the Latest Bird News page, in future only images of the scarcer species will appear on that page; everything else will go straight into the Photo Gallery, which has its own 'Latest Additions' section so you can check what's been uploaded recently.

7th August 2007

VANDALISM AT WATERMEAD COUNTRY PARK NORTH

Ken Goodrich has informed me that Plover hide at Watermead Country Park North has been vandalised. The lock has been stolen, so at present the combination lock has been replaced with an ordinary padlock. The hide is therefore only accessible between 08:30 and 16:00. When the combination lock is replaced the number will be changed, so members requiring access outside those hours will need to contact Ken for the new number.

18th June 2007

OFFICIAL OPENING OF SHOVELER HIDE AT RUTLAND WATER

A small group gathered at Rutland Water on Sunday 17th June to officially open the new Shoveler hide, and to dedicate it to the ‘past presidents of LROS’. The past presidents were RG Pochin, FA Bak, RAO Hickling and FP Littlemore. Amongst those present were Fred Littlemore’s widow and one of Ron Hickling’s daughters. Both agreed that it was a fitting tribute to the four men. Tim Appleton thanked LROS for its kind donation towards the renovation of the hide and praised the work done by the men commemorated by it. Frank Pickering thanked Tim on behalf of LROS for the hard work carried out by him and his team in building and erecting the hide on site. The hide is perfectly positioned to benefit from the new work to be carried out at the site, and so prove very popular to visitors and be something LROS members can be proud of.

12th June 2007

MARION'S DAY AT THE PALACE

LROS Secretary Marion Vincent received her MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 23rd May, and has sent this photo:

6th May 2007

OPEN FARM SUNDAY

Open Farm Sunday is being held on June 10th when hundreds of farms across the country are having an open day and inviting the public to find out about modern farming, food production and land management for conservation. Participating farms are listed at www.farmsunday.org.uk.

Hall Farm, Brentingby, near Melton Mowbray is one participating farm and farm walks are being held at 11am and 2pm. Hall Farm is a traditional mixed family farm with a range of habitats supporting a numerous farmland and other birds, including 13 red data list species. Richard Winspear, agriculture adviser with the RSPB will be attending and accompanying the walks to explain how the land management work is helping to improve bird populations.

All welcome: for further information and booking, contact Julia Hawley, 01664 562763 or contact via the website www.brentingbymeadows.co.uk

30th April 2007

NEW LEICESTERSHIRE DAY-LIST RECORD

The Leicestershire (not including Rutland) day-list record was beaten on 29th April 2007 by a dream-team consisting of Dave Gray and Rob Fray, who recorded 110 species on the day, smashing the previous record of 109 by one. It involved grabbing the winner deep into injury time, with a last-gasp Woodcock at Blakeshay Wood at 9.07pm, a mere 17 hours and 29 minutes after the first bird, a Robin at 3.38am. An account of the day will appear in a future Grebe.

29th April 2007

PRIORY WATER BOOK

From LROS member Mark Rossell:

We have put together a very professional-looking bound book with glossy covers and pictures, giving a rare insight into what's been going on at Priory Water nature reserve.

The book describes the flora and fauna of Priory Water nature reserve from the day the Leicestershire Wildfowlers Association first took it over, and how they developed the reserve over the last 20 years.
The book contains details on all the species that have been recorded on the site, including birds, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, fish, plants, trees and reptiles.

The book is entitled Priory Water Wildfowl Project: The establishment and development of a nature reserve”. All money raised from the sale of this book will go directly to benefit the reserve. It is in A4 format, contains 50 pages with colour photos and is an absolute bargain at £8.00 plus P&P.

For further information, contact:

Mark Rossell
22 Klondyke way
Asfordby
Melton Mowbray
Leicestershire
LE14 3TW

Tel: 01664 812850

Email: mark-rossell@tiscali.co.uk

19th April 2007

SCARCE BREEDING BIRDS

As the breeding season is now approaching, we will be more selective regarding which species appear on the Latest News page. This caution is for obvious reasons; there are still a few uneducated scumbags out there who think it's big and clever to collect birds eggs (indeed, there was a case not too many years ago of a pathetic specimen from Loughborough who had taken eggs of breeding waders in the Soar Valley). This caution also protects vulnerable species from disturbance by well-meaning but over-enthusiastic birdwatchers and photographers. Some of the species to which this applies include Peregrine, Hobby, Little Ringed Plover, Ringed Plover, Redshank, Barn Owl and Raven amongst others. Therefore, please do not take offence if any of your reports that fall into the above category are not mentioned on the Latest News page! Obvious passage migrants (particularly waders) will continue to be mentioned on the Latest News page. It is important that breeding records of these species are still reported to LROS, either direct to the County Recorder, via the electronic recording method, paper record slips or to this website.

13th March 2007

NEW COUNTY RECORDER

Steve Lister has taken over from Rob Fray as County Recorder for Leicestershire and Rutland. Steve's contact details can be found here. Rob will be leaving the county within the next few months but will still be maintaining the LROS website.

11th March 2007

RUTLANDBIRDER

The 'Rutlandbirder' yahoo group has now been extended to incorporate 'old' Leicestershire as well. For more details, click on the link below.

18th February 2007

RUTLANDBIRDER

A new yahoo email group has been set up for bird sightings in the Rutland and Stamford area. see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rutlandbirder/ for more details.

30th December 2006

LROS SECRETARY RECEIVES AN MBE

Congratulations to LROS Secretary Marion Vincent, who has received an MBE in the New Year Honours list for services to the village of Rothley. I've always thought that Marion deserved a medal for dealing with various LROS Chairmen over the years!

28th December 2006

PROBLEMS AFOOT AT SENCE VALLEY FOREST PARK

A group of travellers has moved on to Sence Valley Forest Park in the last few days. As this site is privately owned/managed by the Forestry Commission, it is them who will need to evict their new friends but, according to the Leicester Mercury today, "nobody was available for comment" from the Forestry Commission (in other words, they are closed for Christmas and the New Year). It therefore seems likely that the travellers will be present for some time yet, so if you are visiting this site, especially towards dusk, it would be advisable not to leave any valuables in your vehicle and perhaps even to park elsewhere and walk. No doubt in a few weeks/months time, the Forestry Commission will be faced with a large clean-up bill...

10th December 2006

IMPORTANT NEWS ON RECORD SLIPS AND BIRD RECORDING

After a period of change we are now pleased to be able to formalise the new arrangements for bird records. As many of you will know Ken Goodrich has been dealing with the electronic records; Ken has now kindly offered to take over responsibility for the paper record slips. From now on all records should be forwarded to Ken. To ensure that the new fieldnotes team of Brian Moore and Dave Gray have sufficient time to compile the monthly round-up, records need to be with Ken by the 6th of each month. Due to publication deadlines any records received later may only be entered onto the database.

Ken is also going to send out blank record slips to members who request them by sending an SAE; please note that record slips can also be downloaded and printed from the LROS website. You can also collect blank slips from Ken, please ring and check he will be at home first though.

Ken has confirmed with the Post Office that 25 slips can be despatched by the current 23p/2nd class and 32p/1st class postage rates in standard letter size envelopes as they weigh 98g. 100 record slips can be posted for 37p/2nd class and 44p/1st class. When sending record slips in please use this as a guide when deciding on postage. If in doubt, check with your local post office to avoid any delivery problems. As we are painfully aware, the post office do not need a great deal of encouragement to demand more money and not deliver letters correctly!

25th November 2006

WHERE TO WATCH BIRDS IN THE EAST MIDLANDS

The second edition of Where to watch birds in the East Midlands, part of the popular Helm series of Where to watch... books, has just been published. Written by Rob Fray (yes, that's me) and illustrated by local artist John Wright, it features 79 sites in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire (including Rutland), Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire. All sites have details on Habitat, Species, Access and Seasons, along with a map of each area. The book has been completely updated from the first edition; there are 20 new sites included, all site entries have been completely re-written, and all the maps are new. Leicestershire is represented by 16 sites.

Available for a bargain £16.99! A completely unbiased (ish) review will appear in The Grebe shortly.

6th November 2006

This odd-looking duck was photographed by Jonathan Wheeler at the Birstall section of Watermead Country Park in October. It is obviously a hybrid involving a Gadwall, but what is the other parent? My initial guess would be Mallard - does anybody else have any bright ideas? Photos below © Jonathan Wheeler.

27th October 2006

LOCAL TAXIDERMIST SENTENCED FOR DEALING IN STUFFED RARE BIRDS

From the Leicester Mercury, 27th October 2006:

"A taxidermist has been convicted of selling stuffed endangered birds to a stately home owner. John Metcalf (66) of Billesdon even went to a protected site on the Scottish island of North Rona to find birds. Yesterday he was given a two-month jail sentence, suspended for a year, after being found guilty of eight counts of selling prohibited endangered wild birds. He was also ordered to pay £8,300 costs.

Norwich Crown Court heard that Metcalf was supplying endangered birds to Michael Barclay, who lives in Hanworth Hall, Norfolk. Barclay (68) was jailed for four months and ordered to pay £30,000 costs after being found guilty of eight charges of illegally buying banned birds between 1997 and 2004. Metcalf was found guilty of eight counts of selling birds between the same dates.

Metcalf, an ornithologist and taxidermist who used to work at Leicester Museum, also pleaded guilty to two charges of taking a wild bird and one of disturbing a wild bird in July 2003 at North Rona."

19th October 2006

RONALD HICKLING

It is with great sadness that we have to report the passing of Ron Hickling, who died yesterday at the age of 93. Ron was a former President of LROS, one of our three Honorary Vice Presidents, and author of the Birds of Leicestershire & Rutland in 1978. He was a genuine birding pioneer of his day and will be sadly missed. More to follow...

The funeral will be held at Gilroes Cemetery on Wednesday October 25th, 3pm.

5th October 2006

BTO PLOVER SURVEY

Please keep a look out for any flocks of Lapwings or Golden Plovers over the forthcoming weekend (October 7th/8th). If you find any, make a note of the number of birds and the site (with a grid reference) and report them in the usual manner (either on paper record slips or on the electronic recording form).

2nd October 2006

NEWSLETTER PROBLEMS

We are aware that many members have been asked to pay £1.14 by Royal Mail for delivery of their September newsletter. We can only apologise for this and will ensure that it doesn't happen again. However, in our defence, we were assured by the Great Glen post office that we had paid the correct postage for the newsletters when they were taken there to be posted a couple of weeks ago, and we have therefore taken the matter up with the Royal Mail to seek an explanation. We have also discovered that some members have been told they need to pay the extra postage costs as the envelope was too big, whilst others have been told it is too heavy, and yet others have had their newsletter delivered without the need to pay extra at all! Several members have been to collect their newsletter from the post office to be told they needed to pay £1.14 as the envelope was "too big", but have then proved that this is not the case by putting it through the new size slot thingy; some people have therefore refused to pay and been handed their newsletter free of charge, whilst others have still been made to pay the £1.14! So if anybody would like to write to the Post Office and tell them what they think, please feel free!

17th September 2006

RED-VEINED DARTERS

At least five Red-veined Darters were seen in the Croft Quarry/Huncote area today. For more details visit the Leicestershire and Rutland Dragonfly Group website. Photo below © Dave Gray.

13th September 2006

OPTICAL EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

The following items are for sale:

Cullman Metal (small) tripod with head & case - £20
Canon Camera EOS 300D digital with lens - £400
Canon Camera EOS 50E with lens - £250
Olympus Digital Printer
Bembo Monopod
Many other camera lenses, filters, a Teleplus converter and other related accessories, plus camera and optical equipment bags.

All the above items are in pristine condition.

Anyone interested in making a purchase should contact Mr John Ashton by telephone on 01530 810775.

13th September 2006

SAD NEWS FROM EYEBROOK RESERVOIR

Regular visitors to Eyebrook Reservoir will be saddened to learn of the death of Eyebrook regular Mick Ralphs, who passed away on 13th September. Our condolences from all in LROS to Mick's family and friends.

Mick's funeral will be held on Thursday 21st September at 2pm at Tugby church. Any donations are requested to be for either the Cystic Fibrosis Trust or the Midlands Asthma and Allergy Research Association; details from A.J. Adkinson & Son Funeral Directors, 12 London Road, Oadby, Leicester LE2 5DG, telephone 0116 2712340.

11th September 2006

MORE RARE DRAGONFLIES...

Following the discovery of Leicestershire and Rutland's first confirmed Small Red-eyed Damselflies in July (see news item on this page for 22nd July), this species has now been recorded at another four sites in recent weeks: Houghton Lodge, Little Stretton, Newton Harcourt Lake and Lakeside Court, Thurnby. Numbers at Priory Water, where the first county record occurred in July, reached a remarkable 250+ in August! In addition, two Red-veined Darters were found by Carl Baggott and Adey Baker at Huncote Embankment on 3rd September, only the third and fourth individuals to be seen in Leicestershire and Rutland. For more information, visit the Leicestershire and Rutland Dragonfly Group website.

AND RARE BUTTERFLIES AS WELL...

A Camberwell Beauty appeared in Adey Baker's garden in Hinckley on 3rd September and represented the 14th county record of this impressive butterfly. It was found by Adey's wife as she emptied potato peelings on to the compost heap! Photo below © Carl Baggott.

The 15th county record of Camberwell Beauty soon followed, when Rob Fray found one at the unlikely site of Evans Weir, Leicester city centre, on 11th September.

6th September 2006

RUTLAND WATER BIRDFAIR

The organisers of the British Birdwatching Fair say that early calculations reveal approximately 19,000 people visited the event over the three days, and they are confident of reaching their target of £200,000 to benefit the Birdlife International Project to protect Pacific parrots. During the life of the Birdfair, over 240,000 hectares of prime wildlife habitat have been protected around the world.

22nd August 2006

ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE GREBE

We are planning in the very near future to begin e-mailing the LROS newsletter The Grebe to members who are willing to accept it in this format rather than by post. It will come as a PDF file, which will be easy to read and simple to open. For your computer to open it, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which most computers have, but if not you can download one for free here.

Obviously this will enable us to save on postage and printing costs, but it will also enable us to improve the quality of the publication, as we can include colour pictures at no extra cost. Please give it a go by REGISTERING HERE. This will take you to an e-mail form, where you should type 'Newsletter Registration' in the subject line and then your name and address for membership verification in the main body of the email. Any queries please contact us by using the Register Here link.

21st August 2006

RUTLAND WATER BIRDFAIR

An estimated 18,000 people attended the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water over the weekend, of which 11 parted with their hard-earned cash and joined LROS! Welcome to any new members reading this, and thank you to all those who helped out on the LROS stand, which looked particularly splendid. Photo below © Ken Goodrich.

16th August 2006

WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BATS?

From Jenny Harris of the Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group

Many birdwatchers have diversified into recording other flying creatures such as moths and dragonflies, but there is another, rather under-recorded group of flying animals: bats.

In Leicestershire and Rutland we have recorded 12 of the 17 British species, including the extremely rare Greater Horseshoe and Grey Long-eared bats. The scarce Barbastelle and, in the last 10 years, Leisler's bats have also been found. The Bat Group is keen to know more about the distribution and status of our local bats. Unfortunately, bat identification is rather challenging (they are all little brown jobs) but it can be achieved using jizz, habitat clues and, most importantly, a bat detector.

Leicestershire and Rutland Bat Group are running two recording workshops soon to encourage bat recording in the counties, including use of bat detectors. We want people to record bats in their local community and then, more importantly, tell us about them! The workshops are FREE.

Following a talk and identification workshop, there will be a walk using several types of bat detectors. The next two workshops are:

Friday 25th August at Market Bosworth, starting at 7.00 pm.

Saturday 9th September at The Griffin public house, Swithland, meeting at 6.00 pm.

Booking is essential: please contact Jenny Harris on 01572 755274 (evenings and weekends) or 0116 2728855 (work).

13th August 2006

CERTIFICATE IN BIRD CONSERVATION AND FIELD ORNITHOLOGY

Leicester University is one of only two centres in the UK where a course in bird conservation is open to all. This is a professionally led course examined by means of continuous assessment during the two years, based on essays, field studies and written reports. The majority of sessions are on a Monday evening. The course also features a number of weekend field trips to key habitats.

This unique course is certificated by Leicester University and is of value and interest to those who are looking to follow a career in conservation as well as amateurs, looking to extend their ornithological horizons, gain insight into fieldwork techniques and a host of topics from migration to climate change.

For further information please contact:
Kathy Springthorpe
The Institute of Lifelong Learning
University of Leicester
128 Regent Road
Leicester
LE1 7PA

Tel 0116 2525972

Email: ecol.vaughan@le.ac.uk

6th August 2006

SILVER-WASHED FRITILLARY

A Silver-washed Fritillary was found by Dave Gray in Cloud Wood today. I am not sure of the status of this species in Leicestershire, but I think it is pretty rare - if anybody knows, please email . Photo below © Carl Baggott.

1st August 2006

WEBSITE OF THE MONTH

The magazine British Birds featured the LROS website as its 'Website of the month' for August. Their review was generally favourable ("LROS has a very good website"), although it was commented that the 'LROS News' section (i.e. this page) had not been updated since June 2004. As if by magic, it has been now - let's hope they have another look!

25th July 2006

LROS DESCRIPTION LIST

The LROS Records Committee has made a few amendments to the Description List (i.e. those species which require supporting notes in order that they can be assessed by the Records Committee). Anybody seeing a Raven will be pleased to know that this species has been removed from the list completely, whilst Nightjar has been removed from the main list and added to the 'Three Observer List'. In view of the current scarcity of Wood Warblers in the county, this species has been added to the 'Three Observer List'.

It is perhaps also worth mentioning that the British Birds Rarities Committee recently removed a total of 17 species from their list, meaning that assessment of these birds now takes place at a local level. Of these 17 scarcities, 11 have been recorded previously in Leicestershire and Rutland: Ferruginous Duck, Great White Egret, Red-footed Falcon, American Golden Plover, White-rumped Sandpiper, White-winged Black Tern, Alpine Swift, Red-rumped Swallow, Red-throated Pipit, Greenish Warbler and Arctic Redpoll. The remaining six new non-BBRC birds are Wilson's Petrel, Black Kite, Subalpine Warbler, Radde's Warbler, Dusky Warbler and Rustic Bunting.

The revised Leicestershire and Rutland Description List can be found on the Bird Recording page.

22nd July 2006

SMALL RED-EYED DAMSELFLIES

Good numbers of Small Red-eyed Damselflies were found by Steve Houghton at Priory Water today, the first confirmed record of this species in the county. For more information, visit the Leicestershire and Rutland Dragonfly Group website.

21st July 2006

COSSINGTON MEADOWS NATURE RESERVE

The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust reserve at Cossington Meadows was officially opened this afternoon by Sir David Attenborough. Photo below © Rob Fray.