But not quite a good Great White Egret (yet).  So today I spent a few hours again at the Nature Reserve. I got properly distracted with a Grey Heron that had decided to camp out in a very good spot for photography near the footpath such that I spent over an hour slowly creeping up on it getting many hundreds of images of it (way more then I needed!) until it obliged me by talking off and moving to another area on the marsh.  Hours of near stationary activity followed by a brief explosion of action.  You would love for them to get on with it but a) I know that if you try to bring forward the action it will only get you a classic ‘bum’ shot and b) I was enjoying the inaction anyway!  

Anyway, after it left a couple of walkers told me they had just seen a couple of egrets (Great White and Little) in a marshy pool a couple of hundred yards away.  So thanking them I hurried off to se if hit was so.  It was.   A Great White was foraging in the pool.  I took a few bad images before it was hastened away by some other walkers which left me to search for the Little Egret which I quicky spotted fishing in grass and moss close by.  Score 2 for that bird.  

I think this relatively busy day was due to the weather which has warmed up enough since the last three days of a very cold snap.  That had frozen much of the open water.  The birds have been prevented from feeding much over this period. (Another good reason for not disturbing any you do see.  Freezing conditions can stress water birds when they need food to survive in the cold winter.)

Anyway two out of three ain’t bad as Meatloaf once sang. Here are a few images but I still long for a good great white:

Gear: Nikon Z8 Nikon 500mm PF lens.  1/ 3200s ( to keep things  nice and crisp) and f/5/6.  ISO 1000 - 1250 . I’m now getting increasingly comfortable with the Z8 and its autofocus system after quite a lot of practice recently.