Worlaby Bits And Big White Heron......Saturday 25th October 2014.

After finishing my 12 hour night shift i travelled home,caught a few hours sleep and then decided to do the patch at Worlaby.
 It was a fairly bright morning and after parking at the top of Carr Lane,i began my two mile walk down to the Ancholme.
 After leaving the car,the sound of an approaching flock of Canada Geese had me seeing a single Pink-footed Goose in amongst the flock of 29 Canadas.
 The section between the car and the Soak Drain,saw a few notable sightings in the form of 7 Grey Partridge and a couple of Common Buzzard catching earth worms.
 The first of 3 Marsh Harriers was seen shortly after this,an adult male,which showed nicely before heading off towards Bonby,a further 2(Juv and adult female) being seen near to the river later.
 After reaching the river itself,a nice flock of 1500 Golden Plover was watched on a field just over the river on the opposite bank and put on a great spectacle as they occasionally flew around after being flushed by passing Buzzards etc.
 On the return leg of my walk and after just crossing over the railway,a Merlin was seen dashing over the nearby fields before perching briefly and then continuing on its hunting sorties,possibly the same bird from my last visit.
 After seeing several flocks of Pinks passing in the distance towards the Humber a flock of 98 birds passed overhead in the same direction.I love to hear these Icelandic breeders and it is a big feature of our local winter scene here in North Lincs,just superb.
 A flock of mixed gulls on the fields back towards the car,saw me at last adding Med. Gull to my patch list,when i found a cracking adult feeding and loafing with the mixed flock of Black-headed and Common Gulls.I know this is a regularly recorded species  nowadays,but they are still a cracking species for me.
 Some impressive totals for the visit included 14 Common Buzzard and at least 10 Kestrel being seen and a flock of 11 Long-tailed Tit was a notable record.
 Non bird sightings on today's visit included 5 Common Darter,including a pair in cop and a male and female Roe Deer.

Rooks,Worlaby village.

Grey Partridges.

Sentinel of the Carrs.

Male and female Roe Deer.

Distant Merlin.

Adult Med Gull.

Adult Med Gull.

Great-white Egret.

Great-white Egret.

 After visiting the patch and hearing on twitter that birding friend Chaz Adland had found a Great-white Egret near to Thornton Abbey,that is where i visited next.
 After arriving at the pond at the back of Thornton Abbey,the Egret was seen straight away,but it was soon apparent it was very nervy and took to flight on a couple of occasions before settling each time back to its fishing.The only other notable sighting here was 3 Little Egret.
 It was really nice to see this bird,as it was only a stones throw from my old patch at Goxhill/East Halton and wasn't that far from home.
 A cracking day out and about in the local area today.