Thursday 19 July 2012

Spoonbill and another grip off

Last Friday I left on news for the Spoonbill at the London Wetland Centre. It showed well on gravel on the main lake. Nice to see a smart adult, especially as it was in London and Surrey, which is the main reason I went. When I arrived it was feeding well and put on a good show but soon returned to the stereotypical Spoonbill thing of sleeping. A nice life. I have photos that were taken with my phone (because my compact camera is broken) but sadly my mobile is also now broken. I also still can't process files from my new SLR. Annoying.

A week ago on Wednesday Ian and I were trudging around the edge of Banstead Woods in the evening as hailstones the size of walnuts nearly knocked us out... for some reason. Roy had a smarter idea and was watching from near Canons Farmhouse. What does he go and do? Only perform another big-style grip! A Little Egret. Flying over him having flown roughly from where we were. For pity's sake not again! I think this is the first time I've missed a bird I need for the patch while actually being on patch. There's only one previous record of Little Egret, a bird in a temporarily flooded field in a wet spell of 2008 so it's quite something for CFBW. Roy does it again. Another one I'll have to grind back some day.