No Regrets, Plenty of Egrets

My brother and I decided to head over to Stanwick Lakes where the reported Cattle Egrets were our main target. Unusually for a Sunday there was no rain though the air had a distinctly Autumnal chill to it. While no insects were found during our visit there were some good birds on view.

Egrets

Duck numbers are still low at the moment with only a small selection on offer and wildfowl in general seemed quite scarce. A first walk around produced views of a Kingfisher and several Grey Wagtails while perhaps as many as half a dozen Cetti's Warblers were heard. As we neared the screen hide a Great White Egret took flight but we couldn't find any of their smaller cousins.

Little Egret and Grey Heron

Given that we still had a bit of time to play with once we had got back to the car we made another circuit of the site and it produced some decent stuff. Somewhat unexpected was a group of five Crossbills that passed over near the vehicular entrance to the lakes. Approaching the screen again and we had further views of the GWE but more importantly we also saw one then two and finally three Cattle Egrets. They were sharing the bank with the GWE and also a couple of Littles making it three species of egret together. If I'd said that was possible in Northamptonshire way back in the seventies when I began birding I'd have been drug tested on the spot!

Willow Emerald and Common Darter.

Content that we had seen all on offer we made the journey home though a spell of sunshine persuaded me to ask my brother to drop me off in Weldon. A walk around the pond produced several Common Darters and a male Southern Hawker though these were outshone by a male Willow Emerald. This is the second one I've seen here and hopefully suggest that they are colonising this spot. Best bird here was a Kingfisher, they're becoming quite regular at this pond.