The journey home...

Great White Egret / 100-400mm Lens

Arrived back in the north-east yesterday evening after an enjoyable weekend further north - more on that later.

First port of call wast East Chevington, where an eventual catch up with the adult purple heron provided a long awaited county tick for me - another relative blocker un-blocked (cattle egret being the other earlier in the year).

The heron was on the south pool, concealed very well in the front of the reed bed - for a colourful bird they can be darn tricky to pick out! Eventually the heron lifted and flew to a better area for viewing.

A few whimbrel were in adjacent fields and a cracking male yellow wagtail.

Further north, the great white egret performed well at Hauxley. Initially bathing between the weir and the wader hide, it flew back towards the southern edge of  the reserve after some prolonged preening.

From the wader hide I was surprised to find the egret on the right hand side in the corner that the greater yellowlegs and grey phalarope had frequented a couple of years back - the egret was no more than 5 meters away!

With the hide windows all closed I rattled off a few record shots - not ideal but in hindsight the correct decision - as soon as the click of the window lock was undone the egret lifted again and dropped onto the adjacent shore.

Bizarrely this is the second time I've had both purple heron and great white egret on the same day - it happened a few years back on Teesside too.

With a hire car to return Mark and I headed off, and after his drop off a quick look at West Hartford produced (the tipped off by GM) black tailed godwit and ringed plover.

Quite a day - which started with capercaillie at 05:30!