If, by any chance, you have access to the BBC’s Winterwatch, series 10 episode 4, which broadcast live this evening in the UK, there is a snippet on…cattle egrets.
Well, in truth the snippet is on 3 egret species, all of which now breed in the UK. In order of increasing rarity (which correlates to when they arrived): the little egret, the cattle egret and the great white egret.
The (not live) footage of egrets gave the opportunity to compare the appearance of little and cattle egrets, side-by-side as it were. Man, there is no doubt in my mind at all now - I saw cattle egrets. The footage they showed was actually of cattle egrets following a flock of sheep, including a bird hitching a ride on a sheep’s back; I was already planning to make another trip out birding over the weekend - now I desperately need a photo of a cheeky egret hitching a lift!
Hey, and thanks to @Tamerlane and @carnut for sharing my enthusiasm.
Here’s a bit of a scary one - canid footprints under the window of the cat room. Now, there are dogs in my condo unit but only one with feet that might have made those prints. There are also a family of coyotes around too. But I can’t talk to the neighbor or look at his dog’s feet right now. Neighbor has covid and is isolating. My windows are low enough for medium and large dogs to look in without any trouble. The cat room holds all their goodies and is where they spend the night, as my allergies won’t allow me to cuddle them at night.
I saw a pretty little mostly-yellow warbler at the bird feeder today. I sure wish I knew what kind it was, but there’s a ton of warbler species that have yellow plumage and I’m not very good at sorting them out.
This is a pretty well done guide for the USA. Assuming you want to spend money and time on such a thing, which not everyone does . Many of us have a limit. I’m okayish at warblers, at least the ones resident to me. But not so great at ‘peeps’ (smaller shorebirds) and those damn hybridizing gulls. I have to take pictures and stare and stare and stare while riffling through guides.
Here’s an insane hour and half video on how to tell apart Long-billed vs.Short-billed Dowitchers. You’d think from the name that the bill would be an easy tell, but noooooo .
Thanks for the recommendation. I really wish I could get a picture of this bird, but I don’t see it very often and of course when I do, by the time I get my camera it’s gone. That would help a lot in figuring out which kind it is.
I went back to Lee Valley with my binoculars and a proper camera, but of course the goosanders were no longer in evidence. Not a complete loss, though, because I did get a picture of this little fellow after he crossed the path twenty yards in front of me. https://ibb.co/Dgqwtgz
Muntjacs aren’t exactly rare, but usually all you see is a brown backside vanishing into the nearest cover, so I was happy that this one stuck around while I got my camera out.
Plus an egret, which I’m confident was just an utterly-mundane Little Egret and not some exotic rarity and a Shoveler duck, which was odd because I can’t remember ever seeing Shovelers before and this was the second one I’d seen in a week.
And also this duck, which I can’t place at all
Half of me says it’s just a lighter-than-usual female tufted duck - but those have yellow eyes. The other half says I don’t know what - female wigeon?
Are there any UK birders here who can help out? @Treppenwitz?
Looks like a Fulvous Whistling Duck. Which frankly I’ve only seen in zoos, though they’re a very widespread and sometimes common species where they occur.
Wow! Excellent call, @Tamerlane. I am most impressed (again!) by your wisdom.
Given the distribution shown in the wiki -
- do we presume that this is an escapee from a collection?
(Aside: over a decade ago I was driving home from work, through Wisborough Green in the middle of rural Sussex, and I saw a stork take off from a rooftop and fly over the car. Happened in a second, left me blinking with disbelief. I rang it in to the local RSPB the next morning and their reaction was, in essence, We have strait jackets and we’re quite prepared to use them. Two days later a marabou stork, escaped from a collection in Kent, was picked up and the story reported in the local papers.)
I am likewise seriously impressed @Tamerlane - the second picture from your link looks absolutely spot on, right down to the short tail and big feet.
Given that its wild range is exclusively tropical (trust me, the Lea valley in January is not tropical), I’d say it has to be an escapee from somewhere. That would fit with how tolerant it was of people - it was just standing by the side of the path and I took the picture from about 5 yards.
Probably worth a call tomorrow to the RSPB or the Lee Valley Park, though i’ve no idea how anyone would go about recapturing it.
I’d assume so. Poking around it looks like you can in fact buy them from breeders in the UK and apparently multiple wildlife centers keep them. In fact I noticed one of the photos in the FWD wiki page identifies it as having been taken at the London Wetland Center .
They have an interesting history of range expansion into then precipitous decline in California. We still get the occasional breeding pair in the far south and irregular individuals mostly in SoCal. But I haven’t run across them myself.
Outside just before dark and heard geese overhead. Not a common sound here so always catches my attention. Got a glimpse of the wedge just before they disappeared into the clouds. There is something about that sound/sight that makes me long to fly with them. Pretty sure my ancestors were migratory peoples.
LOL! I think this is the first time a dad joke has sent me down the rabbit hole. I’d never given it any thought, suddenly a burning need to know. (Aerodynamic principle called ‘angle of attack’, if anyone else is now wondering).
. Many of us have a limit. I’m okayish at warblers, at least the ones resident to me. But not so great at ‘peeps’ (smaller shorebirds) and those damn hybridizing gulls. I have to take pictures and stare and stare and stare while riffling through guides.
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