Great and Little - Sightings, 4 Aug

There’s no getting away from it, herons are impressive birds and today at Old Moor there were four species of heron to be seen.

Here’s the summary of sightings…

In the 1970s there was no mention of ‘egrets’ in my first birding books. It wasn’t until the late 80s that little egrets first started appearing here in numbers. And quickly they’ve colonised wetlands and become an ‘expected’ bird to see: still great but not surprising. In fact the other day I saw a little egret fly across the road in the middle of Wath! (No-one batted an eyelid).

And obviously what’s tempting for one type of heron…

In fact the great white egret arrived at Old Moor yesterday but luckily it was still feeding around the eastern edge of Wath Ings today. What’s more, the other herons of the main marsh took an interest in this impressive newcomer.

Great and, er… little

A few minutes later, a grey heron took a look.

At Wath Ings today, the other question today concerned the reported garganey. The bird was indeed still present and not far from the hide but hidden for the best part of the morning in greenery on top of the ‘spit’. Only stirring every now and again, many watchers had to settle for ‘partial’ view.

...And the fourth

I’ll finish up tonight with a bit of news on other newcomers, the bearded tits. Six birds were seen today and our warden, Dave, recorded four groups recently, totalling eleven birds. We also know there have been four broods this year, twice the number in previous years!

And on that positive note – until next time.