A Great (White) Day!

With the White-tailed Eagle still knocking around the north coast, another attempt today was made to get it in my former patch - the Cley 10km square.

After always being about 10 mins behind it this morning and it seemingly having (temporarily) gone south, I then initially camped out near Kelling Triangle hoping it would again head east along the ridge, but of course it headed west and out of the square nr Langham! I therefore repositioned myself on Cockfield airfield just to the west of the square in the hope it would do a U-turn, and after another 2 hours wait I did just that. So thanks to the pager messages and a quick change of position a number of us quickly were enjoying excellent views as it flew across the fields back to Langham and safely into the square!

We subsequently tracked it as it continued north east to the Bayfield estate where it settled down and showed well on and off over the next couple of hours. It was an amazing bird and its enormous size was truely evident when being mobbed by both corvids and the local Buzzards.

Far better pics than Sunday were obtained, although its always hit and miss with digiscoping a flying bird and relying on the auto-focus, but I'm pleased with the results below.

After the excellent views we had had and the bird disappearing over the treeline, myself and a couple of other birders stayed for a while chatting, and as we were a white bird lifted up off the bottom of the river valley and rose up infront of us. Its large size was immediately apparent, as was the fact that it was an Egret, and the three of us all watched it in somewhat stunned silence for a few seconds with the same thoughts spinning through our minds. I think I then exclaimed something along the lines of "Its a Great White" which the others immediately agreed and we watched as it briefly carried on south following the river but as it then hit a wooded section it veered off across the road and off to the southwest and out of view over some trees, and we all congratulated each other on our good fortune of being in the right place and the right time.

As it passed us I 'fired' off a couple of shots with the digital zoom on the camera to try to get something for the record, which although of pretty poor quality I think are just about OK especially if you squint!

To be greedy further views of the Eagle were then had from the other side of the estate, and I then returned home from my old stomping grounds after what was in the end an excellent afternoon.