Needless to say, the Cattle Egret was already present at Hubberton in the half light at 08:15 this morning, and still there at 16:45, by which time it was too dark to distinguish it from the two Little Egrets it associates with. And while it is not impossible that a bird would commute from Sandy Haven to Angle to feed, to me - this seems a bit unlikely.
Did anybody take any notes on the Dale/Sandy Haven bird, or take any decent photographs? The Angle bird has a very distinctive two-tone bill, with a pale grey basal half and then yellow to the tip. Did the Dale bird have head plumes or mantle plumes? How far did the buff coloration on the head extend? Was there any colour on the breast? and so on....
This bill pattern of the Angle bird can be seen clearly on the image below (on Wednesdays blog), and in the image here (taken today). People tell me that the Dale bird was flighty, hence there do not appear to be many pics of the bird. As you can tell from the images on the blog, the Angle bird is relatively approachable.
So, it could well be that only one bird is involved - but I think that unless a corresponding amount of time and effort is put into searching for the bird at both sites, then perhaps it might be better to base our assumptions on descriptive evidence?
To be honest, I would have been more convinced of the single bird theory had the bird not been seen in the Sandy Haven area yesterday. The Angle bird has not been seen to arrive at or leave the site since it was found, it is there at first light, there during the day, and still there at dusk. In fact, in terms of reliability, it is the exact opposite of the Ring-billed Gull.