A returning friend????

Go back, say, 15 years and egrets were twitchable birds in the UK. Little egrets were getting established in a small way and great whites were still really notable birds. I remember going to Rainham for my first GWE and being pretty pleased with that. Since then both have become much more common. Little egrets breed in good numbers and are no longer even notable on the bird apps. Great whites breed on the Somerset levels and elsewhere and are moving out of the rare group. They are still unusual enough to create a stir at many sites though. This included Maple Lodge, where we had one for a few weeks last Winter. Of course it moved on but only after giving a lot of people a chance to connect.
Today, with no great expectations, I went down the Lodge for the regular Thursday afternoon work party. I'm not sure why but I took my camera with my 500mm lens hoping to catch the green sandpipers on the mud which used to be a lake. As I got to the sluice hide, where there is still some mud, I saw a few little egrets fishing so I stopped for a look. Immediately I saw a larger bird on the water - a great white. It stood out on size alone, dominating its smaller cousins.

As well as the size, it has a large, yellow beak with a green eye ring. Their neck also has a a strange kink in it which is quite characteristic. I banged off a few shots and got the news out to the ML forum on Facebook. For the next 45 minute or so though I had it to myself.
Most of the time it prowled around but it did catch one large perch.

 It took it across to a stone island on the lake and tried to eat it. It really struggled, both with the size and the large spines perch have as well.

It kept trying to swallow it, then failed and gave it a bit of a wash in the lake and tried again.

There was no way it was not going to get that down, and it seemed quite satisfied when it did. It was not alone on the lake though, with 8 little egrets also feeding voraciously, and squabbling over the best areas.

The fish fest also brought in what I wanted to see in the first place, two green sandpipers as well as a kingfisher, so I pretty much got the set for the Lodge.

I had to leave it eventually to carry on fishing but it looked quite happy so hopefully it will remain for a bit longer. Not sure our fish population could stand it though!!!