Egrets!

Just before dawn this morning I met Ol & CT at Jury's Gap to have a look for the Shorelarks that were seen at The Midrips yesterday. As we had to vacate the area by 08.00 before firing commenced it did not give us long. We failed to find the Larks but did see a bonus Barn Owl and 2 Wheatears, I might try again tomorrow.

When I got to the observatory I assisted JTM on a couple of net rounds where a few Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps were caught and processed. OL had gone out into the area and flushed a Wryneck from the High Gorse, then found a Yellow-browed Warbler at the bottom of the Long Pits, then accidentally flushed a roosting Long-eared Owl further up the Long Pits. The Wryneck was very flighty and gave me a couple of long distance views, as for Yellow-browed Warbler it disappeared before I got a chance to go and see it, I'm sure there will be more in the next few days.

 9 Great White Egrets high over the observatory this morning after coming in off the sea

While having a cup of tea at the observatory with some of the other locals a group of 9 Great White Egrets came in off the sea flying inland high over the observatory and appeared to land on the reserve. This evening in a coordinated Egret count with DW who was in Makepiece Hide keeping radio contact with me as I counted the birds dropping into the roost we only had 23 Great White Egrets go to roost, which is good count, however we were expecting to see 30+ with the extra 9 birds that arrived today, we can only think that these birds did not stay or flew straight through, 5 Cattle Egrets and 11 Little Egrets also roosted and a Merlin flew through.

 An hours sea watch from the fishing boats this afternoon was very slow, of note a single Red-throated Diver, and a few each of Sandwich Terns and Gannets. An hour in Denge Marsh Gully was equally fruitless seeing 4 Chiffchaffs, 5 Robins and a Wheatear.

A Redwing that was found in the Heligoland yesterday