Saturday 10 December 2016

With news of a Cattle Egret earlier in the week being seen in fields north of Nethergong, I was hoping that it might roost in the Stour Valley and fly out to feed early morning so with this in mind, I arrived this morning in the dark and waited for the light to pick up. I was hoping that if I viewed from the northern path, it might fly over towards its favoured area but despite waiting for quite a while, the only Egret I saw was a Little which seems quite loyal to the fields there. It was later seen again in fields half a mile north of Nethergong and I managed to see it on the way home. Hopefully it may fly this way and get attracted to follow the Little Egret! I spent the next few hours walking around the site in cloudy, dull and drizzly conditions and saw a good total of 58 species. Birds noted included 4 Snipe, a few groups of Wigeon heard flying over in the dark, 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Skylark, 2 Green Woodpecker, 2 Yellowhammer, 1 Common Buzzard in fields hunting worms, 2 Cetti's Warbler, 4 Fieldfare, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Marsh Harrier, 14 Stock Dove, 2 Grey Heron and c400 Cormorant flew out of the Stour Valley.There were 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Great spotted Woodpecker, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Reed Bunting, c10 Redwing, 2 Mute Swan, 2 Bullfinch, 10 Long tailed Tit, 1 Greylag Goose, 17 Tundra Bean Geese were seen flying north east at 8.35am where they landed in distant fields before flying back to Grove Ferry at 9.42am. Other birds noted were c400 Lapwing, 3 Jay, 1 Mistle Thrush singing, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Stonechat, 1 Merlin, 1 Water Rail and 1 Kestrel. 

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