Great White Egret

The great grey egret is a bit of a rarity in the UK, it doesn't even appear in the 'Out Of The Ordinary' section of my 'Collins Complete Guide To British Birds: A Photographic Guide To Every Common Species' (2004 edition). Similar to the now common little egret but much bigger - about the size of a grey heron - it's impressive, magnificent and hard to ignore. According to the RSPB, numbers are increasing with an over-wintering population of 72 birds, mostly in south east England and East Anglia. However, some birds have taken a liking to the West Country, in particular RSPB Ham Wall and the adjacent Shapwick Heath National Nature Reserve in Somerset. Here are photos of a few of them (unless the same bird was shadowing my friend and I as we spent several hours wandering round both reserves ).

All with K3 + DA300mm + 1.4TC (first) or F 1.7x adapter (all others).

Thoughts. comments etc. welcome as usual.

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Steve

Lovely birds. When are they going to visit the frozen North?

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Both the *istDS and the K5 are incurably addicted to old glass

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It won't be long. From the patches of ice on the water it's clear they were undergoing training for a push north .

And for the avoidance of doubt, the title of the thread is correct, the first line of the text is wrong - they really are great whites, not greys (obvious from the photos of course). How many times did I check and recheck and still miss a crucial mistake ... .

Steve

They are lovely birds, aren't they. You've caught them well, almost as if the bird knew and decided to pose. Great shots, especially the last one.

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Be well, stay safe.

Great shots, well done. Is the 1.7 TC showing slightly better sharpness than the newer 1.4 TC or is it my eyes?

Probably due to a mixture of my (in)ability to get focus spot on, my skills (or not) in post-processing and the 1.4 TC shot (the first) being a bigger crop than the others. I haven't done a forensic, pixel-level comparison of the 1.4x and 1.7x but from normal viewing of images straight from camera I really can't tell the difference.

Steve

Majestic bird.

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Peter



My Flickr page

Super selection - having attempted this sort of shooting I understand how challenging it can be

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LennyBloke

That third is just sublime, really like that image

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Gareth
Welsh Photographer

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