Cattle Egret

 I'm no fan of the X4 journey to Kettering, it always seems to take ages and the results do not always reward the effort. Today was OK however as I managed to catch up with the Cattle Egret which has made Wicksteed Water Meadow its home over the last week or so. While Cattle Egrets are no longer the great county rarity that they once were it's still worth catching up with them whenever possible.

Cattle Egret

I wasn't sure whether the bird would be present when I set out as there had been no reports of it yesterday. Any doubts that I harboured were soon dispelled however as soon as I reached the site, the bird was associating with a small herd of cattle. Some disturbance from passers-by caused it to take flight but it didn't go far and I had some reasonable views of it over the next half an hour or so. Some further disturbance again caused it to fly off and I too decided to head for pastures new.

Yellow-legged Gull

Neighbouring Wicksteed Park was a little on the quiet side, there was a small selection of duck on the main lake but nothing too exciting. Best bird was an immature Yellow-legged Gull which was seen near the boardwalk. With little else to hold my attention I headed off into town where I managed to dip on the local Peregrines too. Several pints in the Earl of Dalkeith restored my spirits and also put me in the right frame of mind to tackle the journey home.