White-winged surprise over my garden!

Glaucous Gull is definitely not something I was expecting to see over the garden today! I had my binoculars and (small) camera handy whilst I was working on my astro equipment outside, and it was just as well that I did. A scarce bird locally, and only the second I've seen on patch. It really did put a smile on my face, it just wasn't something I was expecting to see from home. I've had a few Meds over before, and a probable Iceland Gull over town (we had one on the Axe the following morning so the 'probable' became extremely likely), but still, a very nice surprise indeed!

Poor pics, but I care not.

There were reports of a WT Eagle over Beer at 16:25 on Tuesday, but before I was aware of this, I had a large bird flying high, away from me over Colyton at 16:48-16:50. I had my arms full of daughter, no bins, no underside view of the bird to show any diagnostic shape, but it was big, and the gulls were not impressed. I hope the GPS data gets released and shows that the bird I had heading NNE was not the eagle... Still not seen one, and want to see one properly when it does eventually happen.

Cattle Egrets in Colyton

We've had a few Cattle Egrets frequenting Colyton for quite a while now, numbering up to 5 on occasion. They've been relatively obliging at times, primarily using the same 4 fields. I expect the novelty will somewhat wear off with these in the next few years, but I do rather like them (especially the 2 full breeding plumage birds I had last year)!

Birding time has been a bit sparse lately, as has time to eat or sleep. Having both Delta & Omicron in the house within 4 weeks of each other wasn't ideal either, especially with a 1 year old. 

Roll on Spring.