birding...

Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo ©Mike Lane http://www.nature-photography.co.uk/

No wonder other birders used to call us the Leicestershire Lower Listers. With no coastline and few other distinguishing features, Leicestershire & Rutland was not the place to build up a big list when I started birding in the 1970s. Its saving graces were its woodland and reservoirs. Well, one reservoir really - Eyebrook on the Leicestershire/Rutland border. In 1975 water started being dammed in what was called Empingham Reservoir...it later attained glory as Rutland Water. But I`m getting ahead of myself. In the early 1970s the only decent birds were found at Eyebrook Reservoir - Squacco Heron (1971) and Killdeer (1975) being the best of the bunch. When I visited Eyebrook in October 1975 on a YOC trip, the Killdeer was still present. But the group leader chose not to show it to us young ones, probably in case it turned our heads before we`d had a proper grounding in common birds...and I still need Killdeer for my British list.

Rutland Water rapidly filled up and its bird list soon put Eyebrook in the shade. Today it`s renowned worldwide for the annual British Birdwatching Fair. And if you join the 20,000 other people visiting each August, spare a thought for the local RSPB members who planted most of the trees around the reserve. Back then - 25 years ago - Leicestershire & Rutland shared the same avifauna as other landlocked Midlands counties. Lots of wildfowl and woodland birds but precious few waders and seabirds were mega rarities. They still are. Since the Leicestershire & Rutland Ornithological Society was formed in 1941 there`s only been one record of Razorbill - which equals the number of records of Red-flanked Bluetail and Crag Martin!

In 1975 Rutland was an ex-county. It had ceased to be with local government reorganisation in 1974. Hence the campaign to rename Empingham Reservoir. But the county was not dead, merely resting. In April 1997 it reappeared and regained its status as the smallest county in England and Wales. Of course the LROS did not change its name and records from Rutland (Water) continued to put the county on the map...even when it wasn`t on the map. Birds logged here have included Red-throated Pipit (1981); Bridled Tern (1984); and Redhead (1997). The latter bird was only the second for the Western Palaearctic and was most probably the drake first seen in Nottinghamshire in 1996.

The late 1990s have seen a stream of good birds pass through Leicestershire & Rutland. Not one but two Greenish Warblers in 1996, the Redhead and Red-flanked Bluetail in 1997 (Britain`s only inland record and on the same day as the Siberian Rubythroat in Dorset); Blue-winged Teal and Spotted Sandpiper in 1998 and, of course, Britain`s first twitchable Crag Martin in April 1999. That this unlikely county has become a rarity hotspot is certainly not a function of its location but rather it`s a tribute to the excellent field skills of birders resident here, many of whom are local patch birders turning up great birds away from the honey pots of Eyebrook and Rutland Water.

But despite this purple patch, the Leicestershire & Rutland list has only just struggled over the 300 mark. The Crag Martin will take the county list to 302 (including some interesting 19th Century records like Cream-coloured Courser, Great Snipe and Pallas`s Sandgrouse). Uncommon migrants rarely stray inland (notwithstanding recent events) and coastal birds remain highly desirable ticks for county listers. People lie awake dreaming of Razorbills.

The wader list is respectable but appearances of Bar-tailed Godwit or Knot are causes for celebration. However, the gulls - and their obsessive watchers - are turning Leicestershire & Rutland into a laridist`s dream destination. In particular, local observers are claiming increasing numbers of Yellow-legged and Caspian Gulls. There were only four records of the latter species up to 1998 - but a further 22 during 1998! The number of records in recent years has been 33 in 1999, 14 in 2000, 20 in 2001, 17 in 2002, 32 in 2003 and 29 in 2004 - so the county total is now 171 and counting! As the frontiers of bird identification advance, county birders have stayed in the front line. And as the birds have advanced - or returned - to THEIR front lines, the county has benefited too. In the 1970s, in common with much of Britain, most birds of prey were very rare in Leicestershire & Rutland. I can remember my one and only Buzzard after a period of gales. Today it`s not uncommon to see double figures and the Buzzard has regained its rightful place as a breeding species - as has the Peregrine.

Meanwhile many species of current concern - Tree Sparrow and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - are holding their own in the county. Indeed, Rutland Water has a very successful Tree Sparrow nest box scheme. So birds and birding in Leicestershire & Rutland are in a healthy state. For further evidence, just check out the excellent LROS Annual Reports.