Turned out cold again...

Cattle Egret with his big bruvva at Frodsham. Now that my 30D is bust I am reduced to digiscoping - I always seem to want to do this at long range and in poor lighting conditions too.

Ring-necked Duck x Tufted Duck hybrid at Seaforth.

Wheatear at Seaforth.

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News of a Ring-necked Duck at Seaforth yesterday resulted in me being on the road early this morning. I arrived at Seaforth and found no one else there which I found surprising. Anyway a quick scan of the Tufty flock and there was my target bird. I did think at this point that the bird had some pro-tufty features but then I talked myself out of it, mainly on the grounds that it had been reported as RND all day yesterday and surely the local birders can't have got it wrong. My suspicions were confirmed however by a local guy whose first words were along the lines of - cracking bird for a hybrid.

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This bird does tick a lot of boxes for RND and superficially looks like one, however the bump on the peaked crown has a bit of a tuft and the underwing panel is white (should be grey). Oh well - chalk another one down to experience!

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I do like Seaforth at this time of year though and the RND was not my only reason for being there. I picked up 5 Wheatears (2 males, 3 females) down the fence side with about a dozen Mipits. A guy in the hide said to me he always felt warmer when he had seen his first Wheatear of the year! Approx 20 Goldeneye were on the pool with 80+ Black-tailed Godwits and 140+ Redshanks.

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I then headed off to Frodsham to have a look at the Cattle Egret. Said bird buggered off to a very distant pool within 30 seconds of my arrival, though it did come back briefly before buggering off an equal distance in the opposite direction.

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At lunch I took Billy for a walk to HGF and was delighted to see 6 Black-necked Grebes now on the pool. 10 Sand Martins were also whizzing around and 2 Chiffchaffs were singing in the east and south hedges. 5 Redshanks around the pool, Wigeon flock still at 69 and 7 Reed Buntings in the south hedge.

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In the garden today were 3 Reed Buntings and the usual pair of Grey Partridges. At dusk I paid another visit to HGF and stood on the north bank listening to the various sounds (except the M6). A Heron and a Buzzard both flew in at dusk to roost around the south edge. The last bird singing was a male Song Thrush nr Myddleton Hall - he has an exquisite song!