AA Birdpix, Birds, Travel and More

What goes around Comes around. Well, sometimes. It's a daft saying anyway, but I don't think Pallas's Sandgrouse will be coming around any time soon. However, I claimed that on my website about Egyptian Nightjar, and now look what's happened! I didn't get there of course. Whilst I've always said I would twitch a world tick (for me), I'm not prepared to spend money on charters. So I should have driven to Aberdeen on Sunday, but luckily left it till Monday, when there was no longer any point in leaving the house. "Every cloud has a silver lining", another daft expression, but on this occasion for me it was true. Given my declared target of seeing every bird on the British List anywhere in the world, it means I will have to go to Morocco or possibly Oman, which will be far more enjoyable than dashing up to Shetland. I'm going to Shetland at the end of the month, but that's something I do most years, it's a fortnight's enjoyable birding...

No rEgrets Excuse the awful pun, but all the best bird mags seem to be doing it. I never even considered going for the Western Reef Heron in Wales earlier this year, mainly because I've seen plenty and I'm sure there will be more. But the genus Egretta has much interest, and quite a few possible taxonomic changes, among other things. It doesn't include all Egrets, several are in the genus Ardea, which also includes large herons such as Grey, but I'm not discussing them here. The Western Reef may not have been Britain's first, but being dark phase it was easily identified. But there was the infamous "Stanpit Egret", which caused much controversy back in 1998. It looked different to accompanying Little Egrets, and was eventually recorded as a Little (or possibly hybrid). Little Egrets were not the common species they are today, it was about 1985 that I had twitched one in Devon, and they first bred in 1996.  I have tried to do some superficial research, and ...