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The bird of the year for Britain turned up recently on the Balvicar Golf Course and was noticed by locals as a strange bird. Described to me on the phone as a white guillemot, white Cormorant or just a strange bird or just a gull. After a couple of early morning visits I eventually found the bird with help of a frantic visit by a Carl our local game keeper saying its back...grab your cameras.The bird was in fact an Egret, not just any Egret...this we eventually identified as a Snowy Egret from Eastern, North America blown way off course. The small Egret would normally be found along the tidelines of Florida and Caribbean shores. However it was found to be feeding quite happily around the small lagoons and along the small creek flowing from the tidal lochan.
Way into the small hours on the 5th of November pictures and information was passed to all corners of the country and at last it was agreed that we had indeed a First for Britain here in Argyll. Steve Gantlett of Birding World and other top bird experts all agreed it has all the features of the Snowy Egret showing well and were on their way. A friend, Andy Adcock frantically phoning around all the experts for confirmation too was a great help and he himself turned up early morning all the way from Nottingham delighted to be one of the first to share the momentous occasion of a "first".
Top bird watchers and listers were already on their way from as far as Norfolk shortly after 10.00pm. with some driving for over 10 hours to be at the site for first light. I met several friends from twitches past and enjoyed the day appreciating such a splendid bird. Jim Dickson ( an Argyll birder ) and myself carefully photographed the bird and poured through our bird recognition books and decided this was the big one!
As the bird has been occasionally reported for the past few days now it can be assumed that it will stay for a while yet...several hundreds if not thousands more excited twitchers will descend on the area over the next few days, especially at the weekend.
All day long a steady stream of enthusiasts have observed the Snowy Egret from the Balvicar Golf Course and in the afternoon superb light. What will turn up next in Argyll is blowing in the wind.
All the best, Bill Jackson
