There were still two Cattle Egrets at Rainham Marshes so time to go down to try my luck. Fairly quiet at the moment following the passage of Rough-legged Buzzards and Hen Harriers with just the usual suspects remaining. At the Ken Barrett Hide the Snipe were snoozing.........................
..........................whilst at the Butts Hide the main interest was the dabbling Teal, whistling Wigeon and a rather showy Shoveler.
So what about the Cattle Egrets? A week or so ago I saw them distantly at the back of Avely Pool, and since then they have been very mobile across the site from Wennington Marsh to Purfleet Scrape and mostly not too far from cattle. But today I struck lucky.
As I entered the vistor centre they had been reported on Wennington Marsh, but as I walked down the ramp I could see a small white supect with some cattle on Purfleet Scrape. A quick look through the bins confirmed it as a Cattle Egret. When I reached the bottom of the ramp it flew towards me but then dropped out of sight into ditch, and then a few minutes later flew again towards the Purfleet Hide.
I ran to the hide as fast as I could consistent with carrying a rucksack, camera and binoculars and by the time I got there it was feeding just 15 yards in front of the hide. I quickly rattled of some shots and then a few minutes later it lifted off and rejoined the cattle.
So rather than the usual "you should have been here 10 minutes ago", I got lucky and mangaed to get some great shots of this fantastic bird which I suspect I will never better.
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