With my son home from nursery early due to a high temperature, I hadn't expected a chance to get out. A Chiffchaff in my garden was a surprise and thought that was my birding for the day. But my wife said Ethan was fairly stable and 30 mins or so wouldn't harm.
So, of I went at 16:20 and it was not too exciting at first, I had planned to wait for Barn Owl as one was seen at the rather odd time of 12:23 today, so it must be hungry after substantial flooding and now heavy frosts, must have played havoc with feeding opportunities.
Nearly all of Lavell's was frozen, same for Sandford and even BSL, so after a quick circuit I went back to Lavell's in hope of said Barn Owl. A Little Egret went over North at a fairly typical state of light and time of 16:35.
2 Water Rail called, the Starlings were all but in the reeds on arrival, 3 Teal, 2 Gadwall, 3 Mute Swan and a few Coots were all that were to be found on the little open water there was.
I stood outside scoping the box for 5 minutes and thought I "I can't be bothered for now" so at 17:04 began my walk back. Barely half way and I saw what I thought would be a Grey Heron coming in over the trees from Sandford, lifting my bins 'just in case' I was surprised to see that even in dying light it was in fact all white.
The moments that follow when you get a bird in flight always pass very quickly, but I noted the bulging look of the upper breast due to the fully retracted neck. it's broad and deep wings, it's long trailing legs and long dagger like bill....."good grief it's another bloody Great White Egret" I said, fairly calmly.
It looked as if it would glide into Lavell's, but either saw me and changed it's mind, but then 'braked' in the air and turned left away from me, but glided away roughly WNW over the trees alongside Sandford's North edge and appeared to be dropping.
For me I think it is worth mentioning that Little Egrets tend to fly over to roost much earlier and when it is much lighter, so whilst time of day alone cannot be a reason to assume you have a rare egret, the moment I saw the bird, it was always worth checking.
I ran to the car, bombed to the other end and ran out to the edge of Sandford, but couldn't pick up anything, nor had the time, or light to investigate further.
I headed home to find my son asleep on mum's lap, with an even higher temperature than earlier, so needed to call the docs and head straight out before having time to tweet, or WhatsApp any news out.
When I got home, I pushed out the news, as I went to my blog I thought can I refer to is as an other GWE, no I just can't bring myself to reduce such a cool bird to an acronym.
Wouldn't it be nice if just for once, this bird shows again and sticks around for a few days!
Some catch up news from yesterday, Renton saw a male Stonechat from the Loddon footpath at the river junction near Ron's hide, so that made species number 86, the Great White Egret made it 87...so =1st with 2011. This is without Skylark, Meadow Pipit, or Tawny Owl, all of which are usually recorded in the last week of January.
If we can add 3 more species and set a new January record, it will also mean there are only 2 months of the year the park has not reached or exceeded 90, which I think is remarkable.
Stonechat hasn't been recorded in January since 2002 and I think this is only the 3rd time ever, so kind of rare really.
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