When I arrived at Stithian reservoir this morning I was in formed by Bob Sharples that a rare Great White Egret was showing on the opposite bank from the Stuart Hutching hide so I popped in there first and did the best I could over the several hundred metre distance that the egret was showing, It did a nice pass of a mature Grey heron on the waterline which was useful for scale and a few minutes later took off and headed north along the reservoir affording me a few flight images, I took a few shots of around a couple of dozen Lapwing roosting along the near shoreline and moved off to the Cut-off hide.
I re-joined Bob and Peter Tonkin in the cut-off hide and within a few minutes we had a very low flying male Sparrow hawk come in from the water straight through the feeders, He missed the birds and we all missed the shots and things returned to normal until the Sparrow hawk returned again to perch in the dense but leafless canopy of a waterside tree, It worked its way behind a mass of thin branches and we all complained but it was still watching the movement of every bird that approached the feeders, The thin stems broke up its form to blend with its horizontally barred chest but those piercing yellow eyes were ever watching for the right opportunity to take prey.
The feeders were busy with pairs of Greater spotted Woodpecker, Bullfinch and my first pair of Firecrest showing within a couple of hours along with a family of Long tailed Tits and four Greenfinch that were constantly calling each other, An interesting if cold day with two 'firsts' for this year from the Great White Egret and the pair of Firecrest
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