'allo all;
Been out crabbing with the offspring this evening, one solitary egret decided to pose for me; looking at the RSPB guide then it's almost a textbook case of Little Egret, but I can't find any illustrations which show the red band in front of the eye. Just wondered if any proper bird spotters knew if this was a common feature of these birds or was it some weird mutant?
Cheers.
RSPB:-
www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/l/littleegret/index.aspx#
My subject this evening:-
i42.tinypic.com/b6wtoz.jpg
Last edited by: spamcan61 on Fri 9 Apr 10 at 21:34
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Lordy, Spammers..........Are you some sort of professional bird photographer in disguise. That's a stunning photo.
Can't help on the question though. We don't get many Little, Big or Industrial sized Egrets in our mean streets !
Didn't Edith Piaf sing about them...........Je n'egret rien.
I'll get me pashmina.
Ted
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...the red band in front of the eye...
No mention of it in my bird book, which turned me into an instant expert for Spammers' last query.
My serious suggestion is the bird in the pic looks quite young, so maybe the colouring will fade with age.
My flippant suggestion is that it's been on the birdy equivalent of the lash and has a hangover. :)
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>>
>> My serious suggestion is the bird in the pic looks quite young so maybe the
>> colouring will fade with age.
>>
>> My flippant suggestion is that it's been on the birdy equivalent of the lash and
>> has a hangover. :)
>>
Thanks, yes it did wonder if it's an immature one as it was quite small for an egret. It was very docile and not keen to move at all, even with our dog a few feet away, so maybe it was feeling a bit under the weather...
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Cheers Ted; there's probably an 'old bird' joke in there somewhere as well. That sort of photo is pushing the limits of my small and relatively cheap camera, I had to underexpose a fair bit to stop the egret turning into a bright white blob, which means the dark water background has a weird sort of oil painting texture to it; overall I'm pleased with the photos though.
Egrets are common as muck round my way, it's unusual to drive the 4 miles into Christchurch without seeing at least a couple of them, but I seldom get close enough to see the beak colour.
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Bird identification again - little egret? - Ted
