Cattle Egret at Mons Pool

I almost decided not to go out birding last night; I’d been to the patch three times over the weekend, and was aiming to go again today (Tuesday). However, having got an earlier bus home and had some food nice and promptly, I decided I had nothing to lose from going to Collingham – after all, I need a Wheatear for Patchwork Challenge.

No Wheatears were to be found, but the first sizable gathering of Sand Martins of the year, around 35, was over Ferry Lane Lake. On to Mons Pool, where I walked up the western side of the reserve, flushing a Little Egret from the pond near the path. A scan of the wader scrape didn’t produce anything, and I noticed what I assumed was the same egret stood on the mud in the north-west corner of the site. However, something about it looked a bit odd, and through bins, I quickly realised that it wasn’t just a hunched up Little Egret – it had pale greyish legs, black feet, and a yellow bill. A Cattle Egret!

I called a couple of people and tweeted the news out, before getting some record shots. After just a few minutes, it had a fly around, perching up on one of the posts around the reed plots along the northern side of the site. It remained there for a couple more minutes, before flying round the southern side of the heronry island, then turning back north over the island and appearing to drop in amongst the trees to the middle. If I’d arrived at Mons Pool just 10 minute later I would’ve missed it.

I couldn’t relocate the bird in roost (although a few Little Egrets could just be seen), and nor could Mark Dawson, who’d arrived. Mark managed to get the bird leaving roost at 0640 this morning, when it flew south-west. Next stop Langford Lowfields?

This is presumably the bird that was photo’d at Lound the day before, although with the numbers at large in the country at the moment, who knows. A first for the patch, and a self-found tick too – I don’t get many of them in Notts.