Glossy Ibis

Went to Medmerry today, to have a look for the Glossy Ibis that has been present there for a few days.

It is frequenting a fenced off building compound, complete with workers and heavy machinery, on the Bunn Leisure Caravan Park just outside the South East boundary of the Medmerry Nature Reserve. It seems a strange environment in which to find the bird. There is a rough grassland area and a few puddles and it is obviously finding food but it is difficult to see why it would favour this over the vast wetland areas over the fence in Medmerry.

It seems to be completely unfazed by the work going on around it or by the birders and photographers that visit, so there are some good picture opportunities

This is a juvenile so it hasn't really had a chance to learn that it needs to be wary of people. Particularly as this is a popular dog walking area.

It spends most of its time searching for food in the long grass but we were fortunate to be there when it came out to drink at one of the puddles on the path outside the compound.

I am always surprised how large this bird looks in flight and in pictures. Perhaps we have a preconception based on the larger members of the Ibis family or perhaps it's all in the legs. It is actually quite a small bird but with large wings. Here is another shot taken a couple of years ago at Dungeness of a Glossy Ibis along side a juvenile Black-backed Gull.

Quite a few other birds around today but very little that was posing for a photograph.

Stonechat

Black-tailed Godwit

A good day out, nice weather lots of birds to look at and even a couple of decent pictures. Things are looking up.