It all started at lunchtime with the VP Little Egret being joined by an interloper. Here's the moment it kicked off......
The handbags came out and it was quite amusing to watch the 'local' bird chasing the newcomer for ten minutes or so until having worn each other out, they decided to settle for an island each!
Not another fish shot!!
The real excitement came as I was leaving work! A Great white Egret reported at Ellesmere - yet another outstanding bird for the County! Needless to say I was off like a shot and a small gathering were toasting a new tick for just about everybody!! The Mere is at least 400m across so don't expect feather detail from these shots but you can see the bill, stature and when flushed by a Heron there was no doubting who was the bigger bird!
Even better, the Egret went out of view for a while, so we all split up to find it again. Prompted by Andy (nice one), what should be over at Whitemere - a juv Arctic Tern!! I've been putting in some hours for a local one of these, job now done - taking the 2008 Shropshire list to a heady 159. So, one off my target for the year which will now be a formality, who knows what the final tally will be - with Autumn passage to come......
And finally, here's the happy bunch of Shropshire birders, smiles all round - even Jason who suffered the agony of a near dip - nearly finding two!! Andy appears to be in congratulatory mood......
