Tuesday 22 December 2009

Sunday birding - 20 December - GREAT WHITE EGRET

Late morning I gave Warren Claydon a hand with the Webs count. There were no surprises and in fact the duck numbers were quite low. Only 3 Common Goldeneye at Wilstone and the female Red-crested Pochard was at Startop's End. The most interesting sighting was 6 Lesser Redpolls briefly by the carpark at Wilstone. I was determined to find a Med Gull at the gull roost this afternoon, but again Black-headed Gull numbers were relatively low compared to a week ago.

Fortunately I was saved from another blank by Dave Bilcock's call about the GREAT WHITE EGRET (flew across Marsworth Reservoir and landed very briefly in tree at Tringford before disappearing north). The bird never quite made it to Wilstone Reservoir, and I saw it briefly from the car quite high up doubling back to Marsworth along the stretch of road going to Wilstone cemetry. Remarkably the EURASIAN BITTERN put in a very late appearance for a number of observers, going to roost in reeds on the south bank of Marsworth Reservoir about 4.30pm (Steve Rodwell)

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