Well that's it, another L.O.S. season has come to a close this week with our final field trip and Friday night presentation talk. Doesn't the time pass so quickly when you're having fun?
We had a great day out at
RSPB Blacktoft Sands and
North Cave on
Sunday 7 May with a nice sized group of 14 L.O.S. members turning up on a cloudy day with sunny intervals.
Highlights included a female Montagu's Harrier, male and female Marsh Harriers, a flying Bittern, many Avocets, some Bearded Tits, Cetti's, Reed, Sedge, Willow and Grasshopper Warblers, Blackcap, countless Swifts and Sand Martins and few Swallows, four summer plumaged (black) Spotted Redshanks, two Greenshanks, Black-tailed Godwits in summer plumage, Ringed and Little-Ringed Plovers, Common Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Common Terns, Yellow, Grey and Pied Wagtails, Reed Bunting, Ruffs coming into summer plumage, a single Wigeon, Redshank, Tree Sparrows galore, as well as many of the usuals including Little Egrets, Little Grebes, Great Crested Grebes, Shelducks, Tufted Ducks, Greylag Geese, Mute Swans, Mallards, Gadwalls, Robins, Blackbirds, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Moorhens, Coots, Grey Herons, Carrion Crows, Kestrels and Dunnocks.
And then last night (Friday 12 May) we had an excellent talk by the
'Shropshire Birder' Jim Almond entitled '
Shropshire's Peregrines' with a host of other birds of prey thrown in for comparison.
Jim took us through the complete lifecycle of the Peregrine Falcon from eggs to fledglings and adults using his superb closeup photographs taken under a Schedule 1 license and he gave us a lot of interesting information about these stunning birds.
Jim's a great birder and speaker and a very professional presenter - we hope to see him again.
So that's it for another year. We hope you have a great summer break and we'll see you all again in September with another programme of talks and field trips.