18 Cattle Egrets, Hagg Lane Flash, Notts

 

18 Cattle Egrets at Hagg Lane, on the Lincs / Notts border. 18, now that was some number and a very impressive sight. We can remember when we twitched our first one in the UK at Donna Nook and just look how the numbers have increased over the years. Afraid we could only get to the Slaynes Lane corner as the whole road was under water. 

Red-backed Shrike, Slaynes Lane, Notts

 

What a day and what a bird !  Just got home from finding 2 Bird's Nest Orchid spikes (a first for us after 5 years of searching) to this cracking male red-backed shrike on the pager. So out we went again and flipping heck, was it worth it ! What a stunning bird. 

Caspian Tern, Slaynes Lane

 

A Sunday morning visit to Slaynes Lane for us, only half an hour from home. There was just one caspian tern, snoozing on the mud, occasionally lifting up and settling back down again. A nice friendly crowd to pass the morning with but we didn't get a close up fly by and the wind was blustery to say the least. It did lift up and start to feed but by this time the heat haze had built. But an excellent morning was had by all. Home for a very late breakfast ! 

Arctic Terns, Slaynes Lane

 

Excellent views of a Garganey this morning at Hagg Lane. Then down the road to have a look at Slaynes Lane. Fantastic to see 3 Arctic Terns arrive. A brilliant morning. 

Golden Oriole, Slaynes Lane, Notts

Raining today so we headed to Hagg Lane / Slaynes Lane for the cattle egret knowing that we could bird it from our car. Not there too long before we saw a Lincs birder flushing the cattle egret, but happy that he flushed it our way. It landed with the large group of little egrets on the opposite side of the flood. But cattle egret it was and a new year tick for us.

Cattle Egret in the middle

We then drove along Hagg Lane to the gate as Slaynes Lane starts, thinking we could have a coffee here and a scan around. Just got the flask out and Simon lifted his bins onto a distant bird, GOLDEN ORIOLE !!!!  Coffee ditched, camera out, bins up for about 10 seconds before the oriole dropped down and despite sitting quiet and waiting for well over an hour, it never re-appeared. Then the rain started. The oriole had been reported in flight this morning and who would have thought it would still be around. We drove down Slaynes Lane so we could look back on this small copse but afraid no luck. A fantastic couple of hours at this brilliant Notts site.  Who knows, it might turn up again tomorrow with a bit of luck. 

Black Tern, Slaynes Lane

 

Looks tiny at the side of Common Terns

Black Tern this morning at Slaynes Lane. Afraid never close but it's on the year list taking the tally to 171. 

A sedge warbler was at the side of the car, singing away. Beautiful !

Arctic Terns

 

One of those days where we were in the right place at the right time for a change. Slaynes Lane on Wednesday was an Arctic Tern hotspot !  With 100+ terns past us, a flask of freshly ground coffee and a slab of cake....it was a perfect day !