Thursday 16 September 2010

Great White Egret

I was working down the A1 today so I decided to drop in on the Great White Egret that had been in North Nottinghamshire for a week or so. I'm glad I did as I got some really good views as it sat out in the open preening before dropping down to feed. I'd had a Great White Egret on one of my sites not too far from where this bird was a few months back so it may well have been in the area for a while (assuming it's the same bird). I managed a few photos with my phone before I had to carry on my journey to my site.









My site also proved interesting this morning, all of the passage birds that had been present a few weeks ago appeared to have gone, no real surprise there but there was still plenty to keep me occupied... A flock of approximately 150 very vocal Meadow Pipits feeding on the deck was frustrating to watch due to the rolling terrain they were foraging in, occasionally something different would appear, firstly several 'alba' wagtails, then some 'flava' wagtails, then a Wheatear and finally a Tree Pipit, something unseen flushed them all and they all flew up and flew off south never to be seen again. A constant stream of Meadow Pipits went through (south) most of the day, with the odd House Martin and Swallow also recorded, however the hirundines were all heading north!

Gulls were more numerous on this visit with many Great Black-backs in with the Lesser Black-backed and Herring Gulls, however the highlight was definitely an adult Yellow-legged Gull that dropped down briefly.

Several Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and a number of Buzzard were all recorded however raptor highlight was easily a juvenile female Peregrine that after spending a good 10 minutes flying about being mobbed by a couple of Buzzards decided to drop down to eye level and fly straight towards me! The bird banked and then landed at the edge of a pool only 50m away, it didn't hang on for long before flying off to the south, a spectacular view!

Another enjoyable day!!

(NB The top two GWE photos are from Costa Rica - digiscoped, the bottom 2 are from the site this morning - phonescoped)

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