Local Little Egret

Little Egrets are the Collared Doves of my generation. A bird imprinted on our minds as a scarce sought-after rarity. so when one turned up in the stream at the bottom of my road I got the camera out.

The stream, complete with passing post van. 

The Egret. It was stirring up the bed with its foot, no doubt hoping to dislodge some prey. It has been seen to eat a couple of items of prey.

Its had enough and decides to go up the bank ...

... and wait for a bus.

No bus, so it flew into a nearby tree.

Patch outing

A cold frosty morning with low numbers of birds, so time spent on some "art" photography.

A Little Owl flew into the old oak tree in the big field after some hassle from a Jackdaw. I've often looked for this species in that tree so nice to see it there today, even if just briefly.

A Little Grebe below Feakes Lock was new for the year. Some good views of three Bullfinch, but typically tucked away in undergrowth made photography challenging.

Bee ID

2017 hasn't really got going yet for me. So here's a photo of a bee from last year. It is here so I can link to it from another ID site that seems to have various size and format limits. I think it may be a cuckoo bee so any views on this will be gratefully received.

Longish abdomen, yellow on the flanks, no pollen, possibly Gypsy Cuckoo Bee or Vestal Cuckoo Bee?

Update:

This has been confirmed as a Cuckoo Bee, either Vestal or Gypsy. In which case I probably saw quite a lot of these last summer. There are various explanations of things to look for including both anatomical features and behaviour, but for me the abdomen seemed quite long and distinctive.