Tophill Blow.......

A really crap photo of a Cattle Egret.

As the title suggests,today was slightly windy to say the least,but a great day was enjoyed visiting Yorkshire Waters flagship reserve at Tophill Low.I had made the journey over to primarily see the Cattle Egret,which thankfully was still in the Yorkshire water compound adjacent to the main car park and gave superb views as it fed on earth worms.This bird has been present on and off for a few weeks now between the reserve and nearby Hempholme and this was a welcome new species addition to my Yorkshire list.After enjoying this,my 3rd Cattle Egret,i began to explore the rest of this superb reserve,firstly looking at Watton nature reserve,which is situated adjacent to the river Hull and the reserve.Here highlights were provided by 2 'Redhead' Smew which gave nice views and 3 Black-tailed Godwit.Masses of wildfowl were present here and superb views of the commoner species were gained,the male Teal and Mallards heads positively glowing with colour in the strong sunlight.Also here was my favourite wader species,Curlew,with 19 birds present feeding on the adjacent short turf,cracking!.Later a flock of 31 birds flew over D-res,no doubt containing some of the previous birds.After walking up to Hempholme lock and seeing 3 distant Little Egret,i finished the day with several of the locals in D-res hide for the gull roost.Unfortunately no 'Rare' gulls came into roost,but masses of Wigeon and Common Gulls were present,with smaller numbers of Herring,Great black-back and Black-headed Gulls,making for a great spectacle.I also managed to see my largest flock of Goldeneye so far this year with 41 birds present and they gave cracking views as they displayed to their prospective partners,with that distinct head flicking display and short croaking call,brilliant!.So another enjoyable day out in the home county,can't wait until the Humber bridge toll drops,so i can get over more often.