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Friday 3 August 2018

Great White Egrets at Strumpshaw Fen

A quick walk around the Fen (before the hordes arrived!) was surprisingly productive, given the ferocious heat. Very few new dragonflies (just lots of Brown Hawkers) and only a scattering of Speckled Woods and Large and Small Whites, but as soon as I entered a completely empty Tower Hide I could see two Great White Egrets out on the point. Surrounding them were perhaps twenty Grey Herons as well as a few Ruff, while wading around in the mud were three Common Sandpipers. A third GWE dropped in from the east: I could see it had landed by the sluice towards Lackford Run, so I hurried round to enjoy extreme close-ups of this elegant bird.

A walk right round added very little: there was a vast shoal of what I assume were Rudd by the sluice and a couple of Chiffchaffs were calling over by the boardwalk.

Back home I was pleased to find that several Painted Ladies had set up camp on the Buddleia: they stayed most of the day!





 





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