After-work birding

I've not been doing much twitching at all the last couple of years, even within the county, as I've been concentrating on working my local patch, but now that the longer evenings and better weather are here, it's hard to resist the temptation to stop off and do some birding on the way home.

I called in at Cossington Meadows last night to have a look for the Ring Ouzels that have been reported there in recent days. The female showed up just after I got there - it remained frustratingly half-obscured in a little hollow for much of the time, but John Hague managed a decent digiscoped shot, and it occasionally came right out into full view.

The Bullfinches that John mentions were good to see, too, there were a few Lapwings around, and an interesting Wheatear a little further along the track. It looked large, to me, with long wings and a shortish tail, all suggestive of Greenland Wheatear, but I'm not sure if it was highly-coloured enough to be one. The timing's right, too, with most Wheatears of the nominate race having already gone through, but I'll have to put it down as a probable.

Over on Rectory Marsh, this Little Egret was the highlight - strange to think that 25 years ago it would have been causing major twitching activity.