Cattle Egret.....

Pale-bellied Brent Geese,Donna Nook NNR.

Donna Nook NNR

A trip out to the coast today,saw me enjoying some nice views of the Cattle Egret which is residing in one of the local farmers fields with his herd of Lincoln Red cattle.It was watched as it fed around the cattle in usual Cattle Egret fashion,narrowly escaping one of the cows peeing on it,poor thing!.This is only the 4th record for Lincolnshire of this increasing visitor to these shores.After watching the egret,i walked from Stonebridge down to Pyes Hall and back and saw a few nice bits which included 2 cracking Merlin,1 Juv.Peregrine,733 Dark-bellied Brent Geese which also included 4 Pale-bellied birds and 1 Lapland Bunting.The latter species has reduced dramatically in numbers since the big influx a few weeks ago!.After my visit to Donna,i made my way to Covenham and after getting up onto the res,nearly got blew away,talk about bloody windy!.The best bird here was the reported female Long-tailed Duck,which i think is a juv/1st winter bird due to the amount of brown around the face and generally dull plumage.It showed nicely as it dived for food with that distinct wing-flicking diving action,a lovely bird!.The only other birds of note here were 2 Rock Pipit and my first Goldeneye's of the autumn/winter period,with me recording 13 birds.A decent day out today,despite the showers and blustery conditions.