Monday 22 February 2010

HERONS, HERONS, everywhere

15/02/10
upton warren
straight for the east hide at the moors pool, keeping a lookout on the tree's along the path, although nothing was there,

a little egret had been roosting on the sailing pool at dusk for a few days, so after a visit to the moors, then to the flashes to get the egret.
BUT...........
on entering the hide, THIS:

the LITTLE EGRET was right in front of the hide and with it was a grey heron (3), even coming close together


the bird sometimes was so close, i couldent get the whole bird in the picture, afeter about 15-20 mins looking at the egret, a shout from my dad got me onto the BITTERN, the bird quickly flew a few metres along the reedbed then ditched down into the reed's and wasent seen again. i continued photographing the egret, and it behaved impecibly, and summer plumage was just starting to come through, with lots of 'wispy' feathers flapping about in the breeze.












also just outside the hide was 12 CURLEW








7 GREYLAG GEESE spent some time on the islands before flying off south, 4 shelduck(2 pair) were on the lake, as were 30c shoveler:


we were joined by another photographer who had seen our report of the egret, and came down to look, luckily the bird stopped in the area, giving great photo opp's, 18 common snipe were along the usual banks, and 5 redwing flew over. after a good few hours the bird flew over onto the river, out of view and we decided to head for the flashes.

highlights:

1 BITTERN

1 LITTLE EGRET

4 shelduck

1 cetti's warbler(so glad they have survived)


A pair of BULLFINCH were around near the steps, the flashes were quite devoid of birds, with only 50c lapwing coming down just priar to a rainstorm, to the north of the flashes a goose flock was just on the brow of the hill, though some birds were over the top of the hill, i counted 111+ canada goose and 7 greylag geese, we decided to run back to the car, just as the storm ended, but a quick scan of the masts produced a PEREGRINE.

MB

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, puts into perspective just how local Little Egrets are, Only about 300 miles south of Worcester along the coast they are commoner than Grey Herons in many places! Mind you I'd be bl***y delighted if I had Bitterns on my local patch, I generally just have to hithc a lift with someone for an hour and a half, wait for them until I freeze to death, se notj=hing and go home!

Razboynik said...

Love the plumage on the Little Egret.

AdamLCanning said...

Great stuff mate!

I did see the Little Egret roosting in a tree in a tree east of the sailing pool, too far away for me and my mates to take pictures and film, would have loved to have been at Upton Warren when you were, to get close-ups!

:-)

midlands birder said...

birdieboy
send them egrets up here will you, could do with a few more up here. still unusual in winter.
bitterns are great bird's anywhere, but one on a patch is even better, so glad they winter here now.....
thks for the comment

raz
it really is great plumage isnt it, would be nice if it sticks for a bit so it can develope its plumage more.

adam
glad you saw the egret, but a shame it wasent right in front of the hide as it had been, we were very privilidged to have such a confiding bird.
always a next time
nice to meet you there sat
MB