An Sunday evening trip to Buckenham Marshes in hope of Raptors heading to roost yielded an unexpected Great White Egret, initially seen at 4pm over the river at Claxton/Rockland Marshes (bird of the year on the patch in terms of 'points') flying strongly across the river towards Strumpshaw before being lost to sight. Real monster in flight, size and long yellow bill leaving me in no doubt as to what I was looking at. Get in! Supporting cast of 3 Barn Owls at Claxton, Marsh Harrier at Buckenham and a superb Corvid roost by the station. And all those Wigeon for company, what a site Buckenham is.
Hardley, where it is often confusing to define where the garden ends and the marsh begins. Tumble-down houses and rickety shacks, away from any bus route and Team Sky sorts wrapped in lycra, this is a village that by choice is cut off. The secret is out, and pre-storm Ciara as many as 10 large lenses littered the river bank firing at will. Their target- Winter ghosts. First, the classic Scooby-Doo type, as a Barn Owl responds to an ill-advised squeak in the grass and heads towards the onlookers. Another quickly joins the hunt, their formation a picture of double-edged stealth. But these year-round residents are not the key objective today, that honour is given to the Short-eared Owl. 3/4 of these can be seen from the staithe at the minute, floating like giant moths over the tussocks and edges. In a recent article in The New Yorker, Jake Fiennes states "Everything is about edge". Hedges, ditches, scrub, forgotten tracts of land that link nothing and no-one. Fiennes, now ...
Congrats on the find Jim!
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise you managed to tick it on 'your' side of the patch too, great work!!
Hopefully it'll reappear soon at Stumpshaw
Cheers Ben. I was on the phone straight away on the off chance you or Matt were at Strumpshaw! It would be nice if it stuck around, bit of variety this winter.
ReplyDeleteJim.
I spent a couple of hours looking for the GWE so I could 'claw one back' from Ben - no luck though! Good find, Jim!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised it hasn't been seen again David, rarely inconspicuous these monsters! Still, a nice one for the year list which stands out just a little bit. All the best with the conclusion of this year's patching.
ReplyDeleteJim.