It’s always exciting when something a little more unusual turns up on the reserve and the massive bird that was stalking around in front of the hide today certainly counted as unusual for Otmoor. It was a great white egret, a bird about the size of a grey heron, but pure white and with a massive, sharp, yellow bill. Their necks' seem impossible long when stretched out and this majestic bird was using it’s ferocious bill to feast (probably) on the large numbers of small toads and frogs hopping around the water’s edge. Great white egrets successfully bred in Somerset this year, so it may well be a bird that has decided to have a break from the South West and come for a holiday in Oxfordshire.