Little Egret

Any mention of Cleethorpes conjures up images of trippers, deck chairs, amusement arcades and candyfloss, but the seashore here is part of the Humber Estuary SSSI and includes a lot of good shore bird habitat, ranging from saltmarsh to muddy sediments that are important feeding sites for waders.

We watched this little egret catching small fish on the saltmarsh last week. They've been resident there for a few years now and it's remarkable how they have become a familiar element in the bird fauna, considering that not so long ago birders would have been jumping up and down with excitement at the sight of one of these exotic colonists. They are one of the good news stories for UK wildlife.

Unusual Fly-past and the Wobbly World of Heat-haze

This black swan from the collection of ornamental waterfowl on the boating lake at Cleethorpes joined the local mute swans for a fly-past this morning, while ....

.... out beyond the saltmarsh a little egret, a classic sailing ship and the wind turbines on the Yorkshire coast of the River Humber all had some wind in their sails, even if everything was shimmering in a heat-haze