I was trying to find the collective noun for a group of cattle egrets. Often you get congregation of egrets or a wedge or a skewer but from New Zealand I found they called it a stampede– so that is what I am going for! Why this debate? Well it was the monthly bird survey out by the river this morning and we saw nine cattle egrets– the most I have seen in this country! In the last 10 years more and more are in the UK and I should think they will mirror the advance of the little egret across the country. A few pictures of them that I took are at the bottom of the blog- couldn’t get all nine in- guess why they are called cattle egrets!! Other highlights from this morning were migrants moving south- a couple of wheatears, six yellow wagtails, plenty of swallows and a whimbrel. We actually saw three species of wagtail  (8 pied and 2 grey), as well as many curlews, avocets, godwits, shelducks and 100+ black-headed gulls on the river. A good morning!

The morning was rounded off with Clare and I cycling to Nailsworth for lunch (we were apprehensive about the forecast but it stayed dry).