Great White Egret at Deeping High Bank, Lincolnshire

Great White Egret at Maxey

Another trial with the new camera. This time with a bird that has been hanging around the local area for a while now, but time constraints have meant that I have been unable to catch up with this large white heron. That changed on Monday, with the weather being awful and so, not conducive to gardening and with the bird being reported from Maxey, my local patch.

It was first seen on the Maxey Cut, in the company of a couple of Little Egrets, but then flew to the adjacent field, where it stood and preened for a while. It then took flight and went out of view.

Again, not the greatest, but a `record` shot of this addition to my PBC year list.

Great Egret

I always wonder why this bird is sometimes called Great Egret, but more commonly Great White Egret? We call a Little Egret just that, a Little Egret, no 'White' involved, although the bird is white and we also call a Cattle Egret just a Cattle Egret, again no 'White', but the bird is that colour. Why the two names and of the most common, why 'Great White Egret'? I only ask?

I digress.

Two days ago a Great (White) Egret was seen in a field near to the village of Eastrea in Cambridgeshire. Its' location was fairly close (as the Egret flies) to where one was seen back in May on the Eldernell part of the Nene Washes. I wonder if it was the same bird?

Today was my first opportunity to visit the area and see the bird for myself. The day dawned dull, cloudy and wet, but I ventured out and arrived at the site to find no bird. After searching various dykes and ditches I came across the bird in a dyke hidden by reeds (the bird, not the dyke). It was still extremely dark, so not the time to go rattling off photo's, so I decided to wait and see if the weather cheered up. The bird flew! Great, where is it going? I thought, as it flew high and east. After fruitlessly looking for the bird by driving around the nearby droves, I returned to the original site where I saw the bird frequenting its' original dyke! The light was better and so I managed to get a couple of shots when it appeared out of the dyke.

I managed to get a short video of the bird fishing, where hopefully, you will able to see it catch a fish.

I still don't understand why it has two names though!?

Great White Egret

This Great White Egret has been present for the past few days at Eldernell, part of the RSPB`s reserve on the Nene Washes. It is showing signs of being in breeding plumage, having a black bill instead of the yellow bill which it sports in the winter. The definite `kink` in the neck is an identification hint when confused with a Little Egret, although the size of the bird should negate that problem on its own. This bird is about the same size as a Grey Heron.

The Great White Egret is a bird that used to be seriously rare in Britain with less than a dozen birds reported from 1825 - 1975. This has increased somewhat with 25 birds being reported annually since 2000, although, as far as I am aware they have not bred in this country as yet, but surely colonisation is just a matter of time?

A very nice addition to my PBC year list, which is going along quite nicely with the addition of Raven, Whinchat and also Red Knot to hit the heady heights of 160.

As a postscript, I have just noticed that in the second photo there is something in the bill of the Egret, I assume a prey item of some sort, although the photo is too blurry to see what it is! If you click on the photo you can clearly see something in its` bill, although not that clearly! I really must become more observant!