Evening Garden

The egret roost, north of Starcross. A long-range photo from the back garden. The birds perch conspicuously at first but soon vanish into deep cover.

After yesterday's Glossy Ibis flock I was keen to see if they'd repeat their evening flight, and even more keen to see if I could see them from the house. I stood in the back garden with a cuppa, and at 1708 (later than yesterday evening) a whoosh of wings alerted me to the ten-strong flock as they shot over the house, down towards Mudbank. They continued upriver, as yesterday, presumably to roost somewhere at the north end. A bit earlier, I attempted to count the Cattle Egrets on the other side of the river. A flock of 55+ moved from a wreck, north of Starcross, and headed inland. The bulk of the flock appeared to continue towards Haldon in a north-westerly direction. Later, at around 1655, flocks of 15 and 50+ arrived from somewhere behind Cockwood/Starcross and flew into roost. Potentially then, there were 120+ birds in total, but I suppose I can't fully discount the possibility that the earlier flock off 55+ circled round somewhere miles behind Starcross, and headed to an area nearer the back of Cockwood. Hope that all makes sense! Additionally, 19 Pied Wagtails flew north, over the garden.

I wanted to photograph the Glossy Ibis flock, from the garden,  for posterity. Sadly it was nearly dark at 1708, and they were really shifting. Here's the tail end of all ten, heading upriver.