Glossy Ibis at Walmsley & the Amble marshes. Jan 2022.

 

We've had a single Glossy Ibis at Walmsley reserve since September 2021, it was joined by a second bird into October and since then they've stayed in the area venturing out onto the Camel estuary on occasions and into various creeks and adjoining farmland. 

Fast forward to the 22nd December and a flock of 11 turned up at roosting time, to be more precise at 4:36 pm. 

They turned up for 3 consecutive days at that exact time again. 

The numbers then started to rise, one day there were 16 and now on 13th January there are 18 birds.

This beat our previous record of 14 in July 2017.

They have been difficult to photograph as they've been arriving at dusk and leaving at dawn with very few people seeing them during the daytime.

I know they've been seen on a local farmers substantial dung heap and can be seen circling the reserve at times with a group of cattle egrets.

However today I found them on the marshes happily feeding in semi flooded pasture.

All 18 were there but I couldn't get them all in the same photos so you'll need to take my word for that.

Here are some pics from a sunny day on the Amble marshes... a rarity in itself!