Tuesday 31 August 2010

MEGA, MEGA,MEGA, MEGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

28/07/10
Sheepwash urban park
A fine sunny day at this urban mecca with the good old friend that always accomponies me to 'sheep'.
the usual cercuit of round the main pool, onto the chemical pool, then a quick check of the mound, then down the 2nd tunnel to the marsh reeded pool's
a poor start, with 2 willow warbler and a chiffchaff, 2 whitethroat but little else, after 2 hours of trodging the area, nothing materialised, but as always the 'bird' always appears when you lose all hope. a quick last stop into the marshy pool was as always 'uneventfull', but andy stopped here to try and get a photo of an unco-opperative reed warbler, while i carried on to the bridge over the r. tame, i just appeared on view when a 'white bird' flushed from the river in front of me,
Black legs,
Yellow feet,
White,
Heron,
'EGRET'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bellowed quite loudly to andy but he didnt cover the 30m in time before it flew behind the tree,
A whole site trudge didnt refind it, but on our 2nd drop in of the marshy pools i picked it up feeding behind the reeds
My first LITTLE EGRET at sheepwash, a lifer for andy and my first for the west mid's county:
after an hour or so waiting for the bird to come out from behind the reeds it eventually flew to roost in a nearby tree in a quiet area of the park to roost with terrible light.

A nice find, and a bit of a shock
MB

5 comments:

Robs Birding said...

Hi MB , well done with finding the Little Egret , i expect your friend was abit nervous until you refound it lol well done mate , atb Rob

midlands birder said...

Hey Rob,
it really was a great bird for a park in the middle of birmingham......
andy was more like you gotta stop stringing these birds :-D LOL, asif
MB

StourbridgeRantBoy said...

I and another birder had Little Egret at Sheepwash on Sun 29 Aug at about midday - sent the record to Kevin Clements - if this helps with your dates?

Laurie Allan

midlands birder said...

hiya Laurie thanks fo this infomation, so presuming that this is the same bird that means that the bird had been on site for 32+ days, which i find unbelievable for an urban park.
if anyone with info on sheepwash (martyn????) could this possibally be the longest staying bird ever????
mr yapp ( blurred birder) had some trouble getting iccle egret on his sheepwash list if i remember right, so quite a good record.
oh btw did you manage to age the bird, as the one in our 28/07 + 4/08 sightings was a juv????
thanks again
MB

Andy Mabbett, West Midland Bird Club said...

Kevin Clements, mentioned in an earlier comment, is the West Midland Bird Club's County Recorder for the West Midlands. If anyone doesn't already do so; please report all sightings in the county to him, or via BirdTrack, with permission given for them to forward records to him.