Over the course of this summer, we have had several reports and sightings of great white egrets flying over the reserve. We have not seen a settled one here for almost four years. That is until Friday afternoon of course! One appeared on the washland pool in front of the Washland viewpoint at around 4pm. If you are not familiar with this species, here is a photo of one of them that was present in the same area for a while in October and November 2009:
Image credit: Lee Gregory
Although the light was quite bad, it was showing very well in the far right hand corner of the pool. It positively dwarved the several little egrets that were also present on the pool!
I went and had a look for it yesterday morning and found it more or less in exactly the same place where I left it the previous evening! While I was up there, a single stonechat was calling nearby and a fieldfare flew over. Several bearded tits were calling and flying around in Brandon Fen behind me and a kingfisher shot along the river.
Most of the morning was taken up by our very successful Race for Wildlife which Ali organised. She deserves a very big pat on the back for it as well as she did a great job! While I was out assisting with the logistics for the run, 27 lesser redpolls flew over the visitor centre and a large flock of redwings (around 40) were roaming around the alders behind the visitor centre.
Later on in the day, Dave went down the reserve and saw a sparrowhawk sparring with a marsh harrier over the west end of the reserve. A barn owl was hunting nearby and our first male hen harrier of the winter was reported from Joist Fen viewpoint.
I went and put the trail our for today's Giving your garden wildlife a winter home event earlier on and there were plenty of siskins and bramblings calling in Brandon Fen. I had a quick peak up on the washland and saw the great white egret straight away. It flew right across the pool in front of me before landing in the bottom left corner. It was near a grey heron which provided a great size comparison (.i.e. the "great white" wasn't much smaller!
If you are planning to visit today, weather permitting there will be a bird ringing demonstration by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) from 11am. They are just getting set up at the moment and the weather is still quite bright. We hope to see you there!