Surprise Surprise

This morning we got up at 6:30am to go to revisit the Red Necked Phalarope at Fairburn Ings. As we set of it was still dark but as we were pulling into the reserve the sun came up.

We first made our way down to the Pickup Hide because that's were we'd heard the Great White Egret was yesterday. When we looked across the scrapes we couldn't see much apart from Teal, Mallard and a few Coots. As we were in there a man came in who was also looking for the Great White Egret due to missing it yesterday. The man left the hide after about 10mins to go to Oldmoor. Just as we were about to leave to I noticed an egret type bird lift up out of the reeds which was coming straight for the hide. As I took a few pictures I noticed that it was the Great White Egret! it got closer and closer until it almost flew within a few metres of us! It was absolutely brilliant.

Great White Egret

 

After that magic moment we went of to the New Flash to see the Red Necked Phalarope which was still giving decent views. At one point the bird came fairly close which gave us better views of it than we had yesterday. After we had a quick look in the Lin Dike Hide were we spotted the Great White Egret again but this time it was a long way out but it was still great to see it again.

Red Necked Phalarope

 

Afterwards we decided to have a visit to RSPB Oldmoor which was about a 30min drive from Fairburn. When we arrived we skipped a few hides because we didn't have much time. As we entered the first one we couldn't see much apart from 2 distant Little Grebes. After about 20mins of waiting the Little Grebes began to creep closer and closer until they were catching fish right in front of the hide. This is the closest we have ever seen Little Grebes so that made it even more exciting.

Little Grebe

 

After that we went to the Wath Ings hide where we saw about 300 Golden Plover which at one point got scared by a Sparrow Hawk which made them lift of into the sky with loads of Lapwing. Other birds included Teal, a very distant Curlew Sandpiper, Dunlin, 5 Green Sandpipers, Ruff and a very showy Black Tailed Godwit! We stayed in there for around an hour before heading off back home.

Black Tailed Godwit