Monday 14 May 2012

WHITE STORK and OSPREY over Tyttenhanger

A fantastic morning at Tyttenhanger! Saturday 12 May


As per usual on Saturday,s I had arranged to meet Ricky Flesher at the viewpoint overlooking the main pit at 7:30am. I parked at the water works and was slowly making my way toward the main pit checking the sheep fields as I went, I could see in the distance that Ricky had already arrived.

As I was scanning the fields my phone rang - "Ricky Flesher" - I knew instantly that he must be onto something good. OSPREY was the shout, and after a little guidance from him , I saw it making its way over Garden Wood being mobbed by two LBB Gulls. We scoped it until it was lost to view south west.

We then relocated to the viewpoint on the east bank. There was not much to see on the main sand spit and I was just saying that, "at this time last year we had seen a Marsh Harrier". Then, unbelievably, another shout from Ricky - b***dy hell! that,s a WHITE STORK. Sure enough, over the trees of Garden Wood, there it was spiraling and turning quite low, I estimated it to be over the Willows Farm end of the fishing lakes - and better still, coming our way! Unfortunately it started to thermal upward and we watched it as a little dot going W - SW.

An amusing story was that we had seen a birder in the distance and were frantically gesturing to him that we had something in the air. The birder was Gordon Cox and he had his young grandson with him. We got Gordon onto the Stork, and although he was mightily pleased - he said that we had just cost him £50!!

Apparently his grandson told him he had just seen a White Stork - Gordon said NEVER - NOT HERE - if it is I will give you 50 quid!!....pay up Gordon!!!

Steve Blake



2 comments:

  1. 1st post here as I had a search around the web after seeing this at the weekend.

    I guess it may have been the same bird I spotted in Stansted on Saturday? This was around 1pm.

    Strange thing was I was at a car show up on the M11 business link trading estate at Castle Lotus and the bird started circling the busy area full of people and expensive classic cars on display. It seemed hell bent on getting to something on the ground. Only way to describe it would be like a hungry seagull intent on picking up some bread! I think people were worried it was going to land on a car at one point.

    Anyway after about 2 or 3 mins of circling and attempting to land between the parked cars it just landed on the concrete and casually started wandering about. Appeared quite tame and was letting people get within 5 or 6 feet to take pictures. Didnt realise what it was at the time but an internet search revealed its quite rare?

    It had tags/rings on both legs too so assume it was the same bird as the original poster saw?

    How rare is a sighting?

    Will post this on a few forums I think as I think it was spotted a bit over the weekend. What sort of ground do they cover in a day?

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  2. Also seen another post on the link below where it was seen and pictured on a roof in Dunmow.

    http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/f/13609/t/77712.aspx

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