Venus Pool - Cattle Egret!!!

What a homecoming! Firstly the Rock Thrush had waited for me and now my phone was alerting me to a small yellow billed Egret present at VP!! Thanks Brian Lyon and well done, it was indeed a Cattle Egret and apart from being a bit of a County unblocker for some, a reserve 'first' for everyone!!

It wasn't doing much, just sat on one of the islands in front of the North hide...

Eventually it decided to go walkabout...

Attempting to conceal itself behind the odd post?

Before marching on...

And quite surprising to see it getting on well with the locals!

The only birds which seemed to take exception were the Geese!

 It was apt to take flight every now and then but always returned to one of the islands!

You beauty...

Struggling to cough a pellet?

And there's more to come!

Venus Pool - Cattle Egret reflections

Best of friends for a change, maybe the Little Egret realised he hadn't got a very good competitor for the fishing rights? And on reflection...

 

The closest of encounters and no fisticuffs!

The final pic,  just before admitting that this fishing lark is overrated and best left to others...

All he could catch was feathers!

Peace and tranquillity reigns!

Blorenge - Rock Thrush part one

I was planning to go for this after coming off Scilly but Storm Brian had a bit of a say in my decision to forget it on the Saturday and get over on the Sunday! With an opportunity to  hit the UK 400 mark and then go and see Gemma down in Swansea as well, it had the makings of a perfect day...

The Rock Thrush was unlikely to depart given the weather conditions Saturday night and with just a 5% chance of rain, a decent day was in prospect? Wishful thinking!! The welcome party...

And (for my dodgy achilles) a bit of a yomp! About 2 k I reckon?

It was strictly thermals on, hoods up with a stiff icy breeze blowing and no shelter!

Where else would you expect it to be? Rock Thrush complete with rock after what I reckoned was the rocky road to UK400...

Rubble will do as well :-)

Despite the cold, it was quite alert and with everyone keeping their distance, it was soon hopping towards the gallery!

I had to take the classic Rock Thrush shot, we've become accustomed to!

But then tried to find something different... feeding?

Perched upright...

And then having a preen :-)

First card full and I'll spare you all those 'oh so similar' shots for now!

Cracking little bird, perfectly behaved gallery and a milestone to remember but wait, there's another card to sort! Coming soon in part two...

Blorenge - Rock Thrush part two

OK that's a cliff and you're a Rock Thrush...the habitat is rocks, right?

Yes and vainly trying, oh so nearly disappearing amongst the rubble!

The sun tried to come out to brighten up the view from the rear...

And then hooping around from rock to rock...

Looking for food!

A couple more poses...

And a close up, it's all becoming so 'similar'! But with a bird like this, who cares?

Arggghhhh where's me Tunnocks??? Had to do with a Chocolate coated 'rice crispie' slice! Which will now become the obligatory landmark celebration! UK 400 completed (subject to any of the recent pending birds!)

Before the return yomp with Richard Stonier and resurrection of my old back problem

Happy days indeed but I think I may be taking things easy for a while?

St Agnes - Eastern ? Orphean Warbler

I had to return... This time with the big lens and even though the Orphean Warbler was unlikely to show within 80-100m at least a few better record shots may have been possible? Here's the business end of the roadside gallery...

Just as well I got the early boat as at least I inherited the pole position spot to sit once spider had 'gone birding' and left his roadside web!  I reckon he'd slept there all night? A long wait then followed until 11.30 when it finally broke cover (the Orphean Warbler - not spider - !!)  destined to put on a distant but prolonged show...

Eating Coprosma berries...

And occasionally showing quite well despite being a dot in the viewfinder!!

A flash of the undertail...

And more flight shots giving a tantalising glimpse of the predominately white outer tail feathers!

And undertail chevrons...

A few more moments in the open - it was on show for an amazing 15 minutes...

It showed again just after midday and then briefly at 2.10 but that was that! It's clearly not that faithful to this hedgerow and given the number of berried Coprosmas, could be anywhere!!

And this image taken the previous day and not analysed in close up by Ash Fisher and Bob Flood provided the impetus to at least keep Eastern Orphean Warbler in the picture. As for the decision, let's wait for BBRC to have their say!