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 :shock.

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?

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.

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.

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

That third is just sublime, really like that image

Loads of Great Egrets at Rutland Water - also Little White Egrets - see pix




Also some Gret in East Yorkshire and quite a few Little ones too - the size difference is interesting