May 3rd

Out at dawn again. Not much doing at Corton, just 2 Curlew in the church field. Went to Carlton Marshes. On arrival at the scrape there was a pure white back of a bird asleep partly obscured among reeds, which I thought looked interesting maybe a spoonbill or something but I dismissed it as probably a Mute Swan as there were 20+ present nearby. For the next hour I waited at the watchpoint to see what may drop in. A couple of Cuckoos and a reeling Gropper noted. Then a large birding party appeared on the far side of the scrape having walked up from the organised dawn chorus walk, including Andrew Easton and James Wright. 10 mins later as I was scanning towards Oulton I received a phone call from james Wright...."can you see the Great White Egret..?". Raising bins to the scrape there it was out in the open in full view..a Great White Egret...which had clearly just walked out from its resting position. With no phone call I would surely have "found" it within seconds..I could hear much hilarity occurring from their side as we realised I had been denied 6 pts. A great bird tho and it remained on site all day showing well to many. Patch gold was noted in the form of 3 Avocets flying over the scrape and off eastwards, by no means annual and many havent seen one in Lowestoft before. A fine close Hobby rounded off the morning nicely.