There were 53 Wigeon on the sea, Musselwick side, when I arrived at the Gann just after 11am for the falling tide. The beach was fairly quiet with no sign of any small waders, just a few Herring Gulls and crows, but a scan just happened to pass over this Hooded Crow, which obviously disappeared before I had time to get the real camera out of the rucksack.
A bit later the corvids came down from the airfield, mostly Jackdaws in apparently two separate flocks of about 500 each, that proceeded to put on an intertwining murmuration display. It looked like one of the flocks landed on the beach and the other continued towards St Ishmaels. There was no sign of anything hunting them, but the noise of this murder of Jackdaws felt a bit Hitchcockian - glad I was not staying in The Gann cottage.
About 90 Curlew came in to feed on the beach along with four
Bar-tailed Godwits, but no sign of any small waders.
The Cattle Egret very obligingly flew straight in to land in the scope view as I was looking over the lagoon for small waders - about a dozen Redshank and a handful of Greenshank and a single Bar-tailed Godwit. There was one Yellow-legged Gull and a single Mediterranean Gull in the small Herring Gull flock and a Water Rail squealing in the small southern reedbed.
After a very quick trip to a quiet Marloes Mere car park, I stopped at Mullock Bridge and could just see three egrets with the cattle in the bottom field at the end of the lane at Whiteholmes Farm. Two flew off, but the third turned out to be a/the Cattle Egret when I got the scope on it, which raises the possibility that there is more than one around, just like the Great White Egrets on the Western Cleddau. Notably, I was at RSPB Otmoor a couple of weeks ago where there were 14 together with cattle and have been confirmed as breeding at nearby Blenheim this summer. Like Little Egrets, it seems like their range is expanding northwards.
