Abberton Spoonies
Sad but glad! This year’s first was a spectacular first for Essex and is a continuing success story for Spoonbills in the east of the country. However, the family have probably moved off to join a colony somewhere along the eastern side of the country but it would be lovely to see a periodic return, especially at the start of next year’s nesting season. They always amaze me, wherever I have seen them in the country, whether it has been at Frampton Marshes, Lincolnshire, Titchwell Marshes, Norfolk, Havergate Island, Suffolk, Arne in Dorset or my local reserve at Amwell in Hertfordshire and am amazed by the almost alien appearance of these birds, which I should only be seeing on the TV on wildlife documentaries from around the world. Despite the ‘tongue in cheek’ comment from a fellow birder at Abberton a couple of weeks back that the young have a face that only a mother could love, I totally disagree. Surrounded by a rookery of continually squabbling Little egrets, the Spoonbill fa...