WESTERN REEF HERON OR WHAT.

 Great stuff from Bryan on birdingcostablanca to get the news out there for a special bird by yesterday evening. He had to work fast as he had photos to process whereas all I have to do is write.

Well that was an interesting day and it became more interesting later with findings from research and comments that came in. It's nice to know there are people out there who are good members of our birding community.

The photos are on Bryan’s site and includes a photo of that very busy tree showing where it was yesterday afternoon. You should be able to spot it as it is clearly greyish amongst the white Little Egrets. Interestingly, there was one Cattle Egret perched there too.

A site headed by - researchgate.net - states there has been occasional breeding by Western Reef Egrets in Eastern Spain. The date on this is January 2001. It adds there have been three recorded instances of interbreeding between our common Little Egrets and the Western Reef. More details are available on their site. No doubt a study in its own right!

There is no real certainly as to what we have really got. But that doesn't matter to us as we're out there, saw it and asked the questions. (All down to Bryan’s searching eyes and spotting the odd one.)

It's our bird anyway. So if it is a hybrid of LE/WRH then great. If it is a rare morph of a Little Egret then it doesn't matter that much to me!. But I would rather say it was the former because that makes it a first in this part of Spain. (That we know of)  if it is  a rare morph then it's another first for myself and Michelle. It pays to search and not just to look, but to see.

Here's to the next time.