Late afternoon and all my venues closed with fog and boats on Fly Flatts, Ogden heaving with public and Leeshaw blocked with yet another Oxenhope gala so I thought I,d give the Elland Gravel Pits Little Egret a go and at least it would drop me below the Queensbury drizzle. The area I work is within a 7 miles range whilst EGP is 6.8 miles away so right on my southern boundary.
On arrival I checked the area where the last reports had come from, around the Avocet building, working my way downstream with nothing so proceeded up river checking the lagoon area and beyond as far as the weir .After 1 hour gone and still no bird a second check of the lagoon luckily gave me a glimpse of white through the reeds, at last, Little Egret.
Trying to find a vantage point proved impossible with either trees or reeds in the way but luckily the bird moved slightly into the open giving me just enough time for a few distant record shots trying to aim the lens between tree branches and leaves.
Its a lot of years since I worked EGP and I was amazed how overgrown it had become from the days when you could stand between the 2 lagoons with large areas of water on both sides of you. How many birders remember the Spotted Sandpiper down there which tried to mate with a Common Sandpiper, that was in May 1990.
Also present in those early days were Sedge Warblers in every bramble patch, Lesser Whitethroats and Yellowhammers whilst Peregrines used to perch on top of the cooling towers watching the gulls on the household waste tip below. Happy days and my every Sunday morning venue.
BS