Tags
birding, birdwatching, Black-crowned night heron, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Night heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, rare bird, rare bird sighting
We’re having a heatwave here in south Wales at the moment and, as I really don’t like the heat or the burning sun, I almost didn’t bother getting up early and going for a walk this morning. But I’m SO glad I did because, by sheer good luck, I spotted a relatively rare bird at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.
Typical me – at the time I didn’t realise it was rare. In fact, I couldn’t work out what it was. It was across the other side of the lake and, even with my 300mm lens, I couldn’t get a close-up (see above). Was it a juvenile cormorant? The shape looked wrong. Was it a juvenile heron (there were three other Grey herons on the water near by)? The colour looked cream, rather than light grey, and the eye looked wrong.
So, I took 7 photos and continued my walk. Once home and showered and cooled down, I went through my pics, cropped them hard and posted them on my bird group page on Facebook. Result! It’s a Night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and is a fairly uncommon migrant in Britain, with usually less than twenty records per annum. It’s caused a bit of excitement amongst local birders though, unfortunately, those who’ve looked for it this afternoon haven’t managed to see it. Needless to say, I’m rather chuffed at my sighting!
Oh, and sorry about my rubbish photos. Luckily this is a bird I’ve seen before, overseas, so you can see some better images here.
earthstar 
Wow – you instigated a ‘twitch’! Perhaps the poor bird has flown over from Spain in search of some water – I know the levels in the Marismas there was already low in May, so probably worse now. They’re odd birds aren’t they? Exciting to spot, especially here, but then they don’t really do a lot!
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Yep, the local birders certainly got excited – it was a life tick for some of them. The bird hasn’t been seen today – could’ve been hiding or moved on. Time will tell. I wondered if it had tried to escape the heat in Spain but it’s been just as hot here.
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Goodness knows how birds randomly find themselves in alien places. Do they keep them in zoos? Has it escaped? Wo knows, but with this heat and all that water (much lower in Spain at the mo), it probably thinks it’s died and landed in heaven! It may even stay – where else is it going to go?
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Sadly, it seems to have moved on … either that or it’s being very very elusive. It will be interesting to see if it turns up elsewhere.
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Well done! What a catch! 🙂
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Thanks, Pete. The local bird paparazzi are out in force today and some early folk got good sightings but it was hiding in a tree when I got there today, probably snoozing for the rest of the day. Exciting!
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