Addressing the masses at The Scrubs Dawn Chorus
Yesterday's bird walks were a resounding success with over 40 attendees. The Dawn Chorus was surprisingly good despite many birds having already fallen silent. We still managed to see singing Willow Warbler, Lesser & Common Whitethroats plus I also managed to show the group displaying Meadow Pipits.
At one point I noticed a female House Sparrow in the grassland, so I announced to the group that I was going to show them a rarity. As I uttered these words, 4 Little Egrets flew over! How amazing was that? We have no water at The Scrubs and these birds were totally unexpected - our 4th ever record for the site!
Little Egret - photographed at the Ebro Delta, Spain
The later walk (that started at 9am) was more of a birding affair with many of the group being members of the London Natural History Society. By this point, the sun was beating down making it the warmest day of the year so far.
The avian highlights included a high flying Common Buzzard and our first Spotted Flycatcher for the year. Overall, it was a great morning that totally restored my flagging faith in my beloved local patch.
4 comments:
Wow! Great start to a day! I have days like that - get a bit dispondent, then nature comes back at you and slaps you on the back with a wake up call! I would love to see little egrets!
That must have been a big surprise to see those Little Egrets fly over. Sounds like you had a great day.
Great to see the walks were so successful. I'm leading one at work on Sunday but I don't expect I'll be so lucky with Little Egret, but that's the fun of wildlife watching.
I was at my patch yesterday evening and a Little Egret was almost at arms length as it fished.
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