Three egret day at the flash

This morning I spotted a cattle egret flying over the ruck and then over the flash away south east at 07:10. I'd already seen the great white and little egrets so for the first time ever we had a three egret day at the flash and it had barely gone daylight. 

Cattle egrets are surprisingly scarce still in Greater Manchester and also St Helens. Last week there were 35 birds at Martin Mere and there are often double figure counts at nearby Hale (near Speke), Frodsham and Helsby. Yet the borough of St Helens has only ever had one cattle egret way back in 2008.