Sunday 3 May 2009

Dolydd Hafren - Great White Egret

Collared Flycatcher or Crested Lark? Late the previous evening I'd decided to go for one of them! Of the two, for me it was no contest - the Flycatcher....

I won't dwell on events - the awful 'no sign this morning' :-( came up on my mobile en route. After a second 'no show message' I turned the car around and headed back and no, I wasn't tempted to divert to a 600 mile trip to take in the Crested Lark either!

Anything nearer to home? A Great white Egret had been showing off and on at Dolydd Hafren - I nipped over the border.....

No sign of the Egret either! I settled down, cursing my luck or lack of it but then noticed a large white shape get airborne from one of the distant small ponds - flying towards the small pool to the left of the hide! The camera was off the tripod in just enough time to catch the bird landing in the pool - the shot of the day....






Things then got interesting due to the arrival of a couple of Hobbies! I didn't know which way to turn - GWE fishing to the left or Hobbies dashing front of me - skimming in front of the hide literally a few feet away!! I didn't get a single sharp Hobby shot though and after a few minutes they were gone.

The Egret carried on fishing though - often out of view and always shooting into the 'light' - never helpful for photography.
















I didn't realise at the time that every man and his dog had been drooling over a mega-showy Pallid Swift at Crosby Marine Lake - I should have gone North!!!!