Axe Birding: Cattle Egrets Up Close

As I type this cloud is arriving! Cloud!! Fingers crossed for some passerine action tomorrow...

I had a quick scoot around this morning, it was overall still pretty quiet but there were a few nice highlights.

I was really surprised to see four Med Gulls on Black Hole Marsh at dawn this morning, three first-winters and a second-summer. They were a surprise as I've not seen a Med here for about three weeks, and there's only about thirty Black-headed Gulls! If you can pick out all four in this photo I will be impressed...

Maybe this will help... The second-summer is on the left with two first-winters on the right...

And this really cute and gorgeous subtle first-winter on the post...

There was no sign of the Cattle Egrets on Black Hole Marsh, but a walk around Seaton Marshes afterwards showed why. It was 07:30 and they were still in the roost! It was so nice to finally get some good views of them...

And one final surprise for the morning was a pair of Pintail east past the sea front during a brief sea watch, along with a drake Common Scoter.

I had ten minutes out again this evening, which I spent at Bridge Marsh. Two Goosanders were flying around landing on both the Coly and the Axe, just after Tim White reported two from Black Hole Marsh (so I guess they were the same birds?). And that was about it for me today, so all in all a good day even though I've spent most of it at work.

Patch bird of the day though goes to a male Black Redstart. I was sent a photo of one - which looked an absolute corker - present in a private garden near Boshill mid morning today. I know it's not really a rare bird, but a spring male is a good as they get. This was made even more gripping because I haven't even seen a single Willow Warbler today!

And to complete this post, a few random photos from today around the Patch...