A very photogenic Cattle Egret at Grimley

Today dawned in Pirton with clear blue skies and, as is my usual habit, I was soon out on my early morning dog walk. Two days ago I had heard, but not seen, my first Common Whitethroat of the year in a hedgerow close to our house. I find each and every spring reacquaintance with returning songsters exhilarating and uplifting quickly banishing all thoughts of dark winter days. I suspect the Common Whitethroat’s scratchy song is a bit of an acquired taste but I love it! Today the songster yielded himself up from the depths of the hedgerow and sung to me from the top of the hedge putting a smile on my face for the rest of the walk.

 

I dropped the dogs off at home, grabbed my scope, bins and camera and departed on the short drive to Grimley where I planned to spend a very leisurely morning birding. The car thermometer read 14 degrees as I arrived but it felt much warmer than that in the sun and I set off in shirtsleeves and a very agreeable mood. The camp lane pits complex at Grimley is comprised of a series of old gravel quarries similar to the ones in Oxford but they differ in that many are smaller and, being newer, have less shoreline vegetation. As I walked to the first lake I heard the unmistakable chatter of Little Grebes which always sound angry to me, almost as though they are scolding a naughty child. There were 5 Little Grebes on the pond with a right old ding-dong going on. It looked as though one was aggressive trying to drown another, behaviour I have often seen in Coots but never in Little Grebes.

 

On the next pond I spotted the familiar form of the semi-resident Cattle Egret which is showing signs of summer plumage with a rusty ochre tinge to its crown. I’m pleasantly surprised that it has stayed so long as I thought it would have left in search of  a mate by now. For once the light was perfect with the sun directly behind me and I spent a good hour watching and photographing this still comparatively rare newcomer to our shores – see here for more on the Egret family colonisation of England. It was searching for food on the shore line in the normal Egret manner of shaking its legs in the silt to disturb invertebrates. While I was pouring myself a coffee the Egret flew off and I missed my chance of some flight shots – oh well you can’t have very thing!

 

I spent the rest of the morning slowly walking along the shoreline to the end of the lake complex pausing to watch Little Ringed Plovers and Redshank in my scope and listening to the scratchy song of Reed Warblers and the more orchestral song of Blackcaps. In some trees at the far end of the complex two male Blackthroats were involved in a singing contest  and I paused a while to enjoy their sweet song– what a lovely way to spend a beautiful spring morning!

Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!