Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

A meeting down at regional Headquarters near Wigan this afternoon.  So as I often do I treated myself to a visit to Mere Sands Wood Reserve to make up for the few birds species I had seen on the Big Garden Bird Watch.  It worked.  I had a toss up between this shot and  Jay.  As the Jay was against the sky I had to heavily process the shot so decided on this one.

Little Egrets have shown a phenomenal increase over the last 3o years.  In the winter  Atlas of 81 - 84 they were found in only one 10 Km square and in the Breeding Atlas of  88 - 91  just 3 10Km squares.  In the Atlas of 07 - 11 they wintered in 1500 squares and were confirmed as breeding in more than 160.

Other birds form the day in no particular order:
Robin
Blackbird
Jay
Mallard
Cormorant
Goosander
Canada Goose
Teal
Black Headed Gull
Wood Pigeon
Jackdaw
Great Tit
Blue Tit