Saturday 10th May: Glossy Ibis

Up until today it's been very quiet on the Meadow with just the two BLACK-TAILED GODWITS still to keep my company on my daily visits. On one day one of the OYSTERCATCHERS was back but apart from that it's just the non-breeding Gadwall who seem to have made the floods their home now and the two COMMON TERNS that were noteworthy.

However, there was a dramatic turn of events today when Cherry Robertson and Leon Kinlen found a splendid GLOSSY IBIS on the floods just north of the Burgess Field Gate at 10am this morning. It had a habit of disappearing and then returning to the floods so I managed to miss it the first time round but fortunately saw it mid afternoon when it moved to the Hinterland a couple of hundred yards north of the flood water. The habitat looks absolutely perfect for it so it may well stay around for a while - let's hope so. 

The Glossy Ibis (c) Pete Roby
In fact I've been half expecting this species for a while now on the Meadow now that they're no longer as rare as they once were. Still, this is the first record for the site and in fact there have only been four or so previous records in the county. I suspect that we may well get more sightings in the next few years, after all Spoonbills are now virtually annual on the Meadow.

No comments:

Post a Comment