3 Egret Day at Chew Valley Lake
If I told you 10 years ago that I'd counted 29 Great White Egrets this morning, you might have raised your eyebrows and probably assumed they were Littles. Even then, there was a time not too long before that when 29 Littles would have raised some eyebrows. And yet I really did see 29 Great White Egrets , 11 Little Egrets and 3 Cattle Egrets today! And that's not even close to a record count, with around 50 Great Whites currently on the lake. I'm sure numbers like these aren't especially impressive for seasoned Somerset birders, but for me the novelty hasn't worn off! I have my car with me at uni in Bath this year, and today was the first day I got a chance to go birding. I decided to go to Chew Valley Lake. It's a site I've heard a lot about but never visited before. First stop was the roadside at Herriot's Bridge, where I was greeted immediately by the Great White Egrets . 21 Pintail were on Herriot's Pool, and large numbers of Pochard , Tuft