Cattle Egrets at Abberton

11th November 2021

The forecast was for the morning to be dull but with bright spells developing so off to Abberton to see if the recent set of goodies were anywhere to be seen.

Apart from a few flyover Lapwings the only waders to be seen were a couple of Redshanks feeding along the Layer de la Haye causeway. Luckily they were both very confiding allowing a number of close-ups to be taken.

A lone Shelduck provided a few shots against a dark sky, showing off the colours of this beautiful duck.

Unfortunately, apart from a female Scaup that was asleep all the time we were there, the other goodies such as the Long-tailed Duck and Slavonian Grebes were in different parts of the reservoir so off to find our quarry for the day, the Cattle Egrets.

There were seven present today feeding in the field behind Garr House Farm...............

.........................and amongst them two of the new subspecies Cattle Egret bookendsii...........

In fact also present was a totally new species, the Sheep Egret.

They then all took to the air in a rather loose flock so I was only able to get six in one shot, and flew to the other side of the road to join the cattle where they belong.