Tuesday August 2 - A wild egret chase

 The plan seemed reasonable enough. Sunday's Great White Egret must be somewhere, so I thought I'd check a couple of likely spots. 

First up was Mappleborough Green Flash. The recent drought had reduced it to a puddle, and it contained virtually nothing. Strike one.

Next I tried Spernal STW (from the outside). I walked down the river from the church at Studley, and was disappointed to find it impossible to see even the slightest bit of the lagoon within the site. However, I did flush a Little Egret from surrounding trees, saw two Swifts and heard a calling Yellowhammer, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Strike two.

The last chance saloon was Morton Bagot. The thick cloud and fresh westerly breeze continued, but was encouraging a few raptors into the air. OK if you like silhouettes. First to appear was a very obliging Red Kite.

A shame about the light

A Kestrel added to the raptor tally, and then a good opportunity to compare the very different wing profiles and tail shapes of an adult and juvenile Common Buzzard.

Adult leading, juvenile following.

Juvenile Common Buzzard still calling at the adult

The slender wing shape and longish tail of the young Buzzard looks rather Marsh Harrier-like, but its behaviour and breast band confirm it to be just a young Buzzard.

Down at the flash I missed an opportunity to look closely at another interesting bird. Bear in mind I was still in full Egret hunting mode (my only excuse). Two large adult gulls were standing in the water, and I quickly dismissed them as Lesser Black-backs, before counting seven Black-headed Gulls and failing to find any waders (or Egrets). Just as I returned to the large gulls, they took off revealing bright yellow legs and feet. But one of them was a Herring type. I watched helplessly (and haplessly) as what was presumably the site's second ever Yellow-legged Gull (an adult) flew away with the Lesser Black-backed Gull. They were joined by several more LBBGulls as they all disappeared over Bannam's Wood.

I can't explain why I failed to notice that one of the gulls had a lighter grey back when they were standing together. In fact I have no mental image of the two together (maybe the YL Gull was partly obscured). 

Must try harder next time.

Meanwhile, a closer look at the flash showed that it can hide 82 Lapwings which were only visible when they took off, and at least one Green Sandpiper which only revealed its presence by calling. There may have been loads of them there, but they (or it) remained hidden in the lee of the near side rushes.