A very cold damp morning at Fly Flatts with a W>4 and drizzle with some low scud cloud over the moor at 9 degrees. Only 8 days from the longest day and still wearing my winter gear although if the forecast is right I,ll be moaning about the heat later in the week.
The usual west bank walk and a check of all the shoreline produced very little other than the usual waders with a single male Tufted on the water, where I should be getting Common Scoter any day now.
Back at base I set up the scope to check the distant shore at the north end where there is now quite an expanse of mud but just holding Common Sandpipers and Redshank whilst a Short Eared Owl was quartering the distant moor.
Scanning through the numerous LBB gulls heading >SW I got onto a distinctive looking bird way beyond the gulls and even through the bins it stood out, a large pure white bird with neck tucked in and long legs protruding behind it. A look in the scope to prove my instinct, a Great White Egret following the western ridge >SW. I grabbed the camera and even though it was well out of range I hoped for some kind of record shot but unable to get on it in the view finder before it disappeared into the clag.
I kept watching and hoping but, as we all know, you don,t get a second chance of a bird moving through. Hopefully it will turn up at one of the waters around Manchester where, as my avocets did, birds over Fly Flatts >SW usually end up in the Manchester area.
Its 5 years since my last Great White over Fly Flatts which was a first for Calderdale.
No more excitement after that but good to see the 2 Pied Wagtail chicks flying around and feeding for the first time today.
BS