Wednesday 3rd March

Another sortie around East Malling site for an hour this afternoon - the sun shone on and off.  A circuit of the lake at Bradbourne turned up the following: 2 Little Grebe, 2 Gadwall, 22 Coot, 15 Moorhen, 150+ Wood Pigeon, 43 Greylag Geese, 96 Canada Geese, Green Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, 55 Black-headed Gull, 16 Mallard, 1 Greenfinch, 9 Goldfinch, 1 Jay, 4 Song Thrush, 1 Blackbird, 1 Grey Heron, 3 Magpie, 12 Chaffinch, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Grey Wagtail, 7 Pied Wagtail, 1 Little Egret

Egret on the right, plastic bag on the left

...a bit closer in case you couldn't see it in the previous photo...skulking or what?!

The highlight was the Little Egret again - this time I managed get a plastic bag, albeit blue, in the same shot just to prove to the Bald Birder I can tell the difference.  As I approached the reed bed it flew and disappeared across the main lawn.  I carried on and added Grey Wagtail to the list, only my second record on this site.  Driving back to work I noticed the Egret standing like a statue on the main lawn,

I watched it for 5 minutes before it started to stride to stride round like a Peacock! 

Eventually it made it's way to the ditch where I'd seen the Green Sandpiper a couple of weeks ago, and dropped down to feed. 

The car proved an excellent hide, so I managed some marginally better pics! 

You can just about make out the yellow feet through the water in this pic

A group of Pied Wagtails were washing in the same stream, including the headless individual:

A Fox was also seen on the south side of the lake, it seemed to be attempting to get the Mallards, and a group of Moorhens were seen climbing in a nearby willow, presumably to avoid the preadtor?!

Unfortunately the Bradbourne House and Lake is a PRIVATE SITE with no access to the public.