I'd walked up the eastern side and just about managed to get around a very flooded woodland and was just making my way back to the reservoir along the southern side of the wood when I bumped in the John. I was disappointed with the lack of birds so far and we stood chatting, catching up on general life. A Yellowhammer flew over, which was a patch year tick for John and I think he'd have been happy with that but what happened in the next few minutes was completely unexpected!
As we were chatting and scanning the gulls, covids and Starlings in the flooded cattle field, I picked up two Egyptian Geese flying in that landed in the field. This was a patch tick for me and only the second site record, plastic as they may be it was a nice sight. Just as we'd finished getting a few photos of those, I picked up two large white birds flying towards us from the south. My brain at first dismissed them as swans but then I then did a double take as my brain caught up with my eyes and I might have uttered an expletive! Two Great White Egrets were flying over north-west before turning more northerly. They didn't stop, but with the amount of flood water around I thought they may have settled up the valley. Unfortunately there was no further sign of them when I and a few others looked. When I got back to the reservoir the geese were gone too. A flurry of activity for five mins - proving that sometimes its all just lucky timing...
Whilst checking the U.C.V. later in the day, Mike had five Shoveler and thirty-four Wigeon in the flooded fields.
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| Photos courtesy and copyright of JFT |
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