The Great White Egret is still present at Wheldrake Ings - however thus far it has only ever been seen early morning, up till about 0800/0830 before it flies off elsewhere to feed for the day.
I popped across to Heslington East to see if yesterdays showers had dropped anything in. It was fairly quiet really, though the Greenshank and a moulting Common Redshank were still busy feeding together (as they were when I dropped in to the site on Friday afternoon). There was also the Little Egret busily feeding and 2 Common Sandpiper flying about. I counted 350 Greylag Geese, but there was more but I flushed them before I got through them all, decent flocks of finches and wagtails but nothing exciting in with them.
On the way to York I noticed a field of gulls, 89 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (pretty much all adults) and 2 adult Yellow-legged Gulls.
Saturday I went to the Rutland Bird Fair with my dad. Was a great day. I didn't go last year but it seemed a lot bigger than 2011? Saw tonnes of people I know through work, world birding, Uni, twitter, my blog, local birding etc. Was great to chat to so many people. Was good to check out some of the tour destinations I have my eye on for the next couple of years (though was disappointed to not find anything for Thailand, other than that in general tour company info) such as mainly Australia, Borneo, South Africa, India etc...
Had a really good chat with Mike Edgecombe (who I met in Malaysia) and Chris Gooddie both on the Oriental Bird Club stand who gave me some more good advice on Thailand. Chris also signed me a copy of his book The Jewel Hunter - his quest for seeing all the Pittas in the world! I'm looking forward to reading it, and also emulating his achievement (in my lifetime - not a year unfortunately!!), only 27 to go!!
I also got to meet Bruce Pearson, who very kindly signed me a very limited copy of his Troubled Waters book - some fantastic artwork.
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