Purple Heron

At sea off The Point this morning a few very distant Manx Shearwaters, the usual Common and Sandwich Terns tooing and froing, a feeding flock of c60 Gannets, a few Fulmars, 2 Sanderling E, 19 Common Scoter W and a Black Tern at The Patch.
Whilst I was at the north end of the trapping area trying to photograph Dragons and Damsels, CT called me to say, that as he was driving down Dengemarsh road, he thought he had seen a Purple Heron drop into the reed bed near Springfield Bridge, but was not 100% certain. 15 minutes later I was standing on the bridge with him, PT and Barney watching up to 5 Hobby's acrobatically catching insects over the reed beds, up 4 Marsh Harriers and the female Red-crested Pochard. After an hour there was only CT and myself left looking for the Purple Heron and we were rewarded with a very short flight view. After another hour a 1st summer Purple Heron flew out of the reed bed for a more prolonged flight allowing record images to be taken and to the obvious enjoyment of DW who had just ambled to the bridge seconds earlier. Then the rain started.