The Birds, the birds.

[Dodgylegs]

'Angry Bird' Watershed, great photo 


One thing about Herons they don't (always!) fly away like most birds as soon as I focus camera on them!

[ayjay]

A New Forest speciality: Dartford Warbler, available elsewhere, but not widespread.

[ayjay]

Here's a "Dirty" Dunnock, (they have a very complicated sex life) aka Hedge Sparrow, .

[Jac]

Lovely pics Ayjay. We're lucky to have Dartford warblers on the commons in east Devon. The mouselike dunnock that's often overlooked has a delightful song.

[Dodgylegs]

Beautiful birds.


Garden bird watch last weekend....only saw one blackbird!

[pleb]

Walkies round local nature reserve today in the snow and saw a white bird fly out of the ditch.
Checking on the interweb and to my surprise it looks like a little egret.

[watershed]

Lovely photos, 

[ayjay]

Walkies round local nature reserve today in the snow and saw a white bird fly out of the ditch.
Checking on the interweb and to my surprise it looks like a little egret.

They've been back in the UK as a breeding species since the early 90s, thought to be over 1000 breeding pairs now.

Black bill = Little Egret, yellow bill = Great White Egret - similar size as Grey Heron.(Small yellow bill = Cattle Egret, a frequent visitor now).

[Peak]

I'm sure that Cattle Egret is now a breeding bird..

[Jac]

I'm sure that Cattle Egret is now a breeding bird..

(googled)
First breeding in UK recorded
Little Egret 1996 Brownsea Island
Cattle Egret  2008 on the Somerset levels
Great White Egret 2012 somerset levels

[ayjay]

I'm sure that Cattle Egret is now a breeding bird..

Yes, just as Jac has kindly elaborated, breeding, but erratically, (it makes a difference in the "Birding World"). I'm not as up to speed on that sort of info as I used to be when I was birding more actively, more to the point I tend to forget stuff nowadays. 

Edit:  Cattle Egret are also frequent winter migrants now, swelling numbers at that time of year.

[andybr]

It also goes without saying that the Little Egret is much smaller than the Great White. This is not always obvious as the upright stance and long legs of these birds can make them appear larger than they actually are but when seen side by side with something more familiar the difference can be surprising.

[Dodgylegs]

When these walks were possible ….Walking long the north banks of the river Tyne, between Tynemouth & North Shields, came across a Little Egret walking along the rocks being attacked by Rooks. A Heron turned up and landed close by and followed the Egret as it slowly walked upstream, Rooks called off their attack! Heron was about four feet away from Egret just following it along!  

[ayjay]

An April Chaffinch, just to remind you that Spring is not that far away.

[Jac]

Two good pics.
Anyone else noticed a real dearth of birds recently?
Yesterday, in nice weather, a 5 mile amble around Haldon Forest - mixed conifers with beech oak willows etc -  produced 1 buzzard, a little flock of long tailed tits and the odd wood pigeon or two.
I know that Dawlish town lost 6 of their black swans to the bird flu in November and am wondering if the birds really are having a pandemic of their own