{"id":21593,"date":"2014-09-03T00:07:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T23:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/?p=21593"},"modified":"2014-09-03T00:07:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T23:07:21","slug":"great-white-egret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/great-white-egret\/","title":{"rendered":"Great White Egret – photo special"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have some other great shots from today, but I’m going to concentrate on the absolute peak sighting: a Great White Egret. Unlike the smaller (and common) Little Egret, this large white heron is very rare indeed, and nationally their numbers range in the low double-figures (20-30 max). The first UK breeding pair was seen elsewhere in the country in 2012. This one is a hugely welcome visitor to the Arundel Wetland Centre<\/a>, one of the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reserves, and has been there – I think – since Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

Apart from its size (roughly the same as a grey heron), the Great White is most easily recognized by its yellow bill. And unlike the Little Egret, it has black feet (visible in this next photo).<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a> <\/p>\n

The hide where I took these shots was – not surprisingly – fairly busy. In the later afternoon it came in closer as it hunted for fish (all tiddlers it seems), which is when I took most of this next sequence.<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a><\/p>\n

That was definitely special, but I can’t not post one shot of the other star sighting of the day. This cute little water vole (the real ‘Ratty’) seen munching away on the banks of the waterway.<\/p>\n

\"water<\/a><\/p>\n

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have some other great shots from today, but I’m going to concentrate on the absolute peak sighting: a Great White Egret. Unlike the smaller (and common) Little Egret, this large white heron is very rare indeed, and nationally their numbers range in the low double-figures (20-30 max). The first UK breeding pair was seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[989,1094],"tags":[1095,1208],"class_list":["post-21593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-birds-birds-2","category-water-vole","tag-great-white-egret","tag-water-vole","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t