“Toggers” aren’t always…

…to blame for disturbing birds. Yesterday (Sunday) I went down to Darlington for the Egrets that have been around a beck there. I found the Great White Egret sitting in a field around a hundred yards from the beck. It was happily cleaning and preening itself when a dog ran out of a hedge and went straight for it. The Egret flew off, circled above me a couple of times then landed in the beck. It had just settled when another dog ran down the bank into the beck and chased it off much to the amusement of the dog’s owners. The Egret flew upstream and was lost to sight. I then went on to see if I could find the Little Egret. I did. It too was sitting in a field cleaning and preening when yet another dog ran straight for it and chased it off. It flew down stream and was again lost to sight. None of the dogs was on a lead and not once did I hear the owners shout to try to get the dogs to stop chasing the birds indeed, as I mentioned earlier one group found it highly amusing. So before some people blame photographers for disturbing birds take a look at dog walkers.

Great White Egret

I relocated the GWE further upstream

Little Egret

A walk around Burdon Moor late afternoon and three Skylarks flew over