Wednesday 3rd. December 2014

Spent a couple of hours this morning at a cold , windy Sevenoaks Reserve , in the hope of seeing the juvenile White Ibis , probable escapee , which has taken up residence in the field beyond Long Lake . Having driven through rain to get there , things hardly improved , apart from a couple of short sunny intervals . Three birders were standing at the five bar gate looking into the field , but soon I was on my own , with the bird a speck on the fence line of the field . It was actively feeding , seemingly

finding plenty of worms to eat . In one of the sunny spells I managed to get a few shots , one amongst

the many Canada Goose also in the field . The geese started to move back towards the middle of the field and I hoped the Ibis would follow , but it let them go and stayed in the distance . Getting colder by the minute , I was about to pack up and took my eye off the bird , then looked back and saw it gone . Fortunately , I just noticed a flash of white fly into the woods to my left , so gathered everything and went looking . Down at the corner I found a couple with binoculars aimed into the wood , and headed towards them , not realising I was passing the Ibis on the way . When I reached

them , there was the Ibis , perched on a half fallen tree , and looking down into the water below , which it soon dropped into , much to the annoyance of a couple of Mallard . Once in the water it

made it's way to behind a small island for a wash and brush up . Another hop up onto the tree ,

followed by a bit of balancing in the water , away from the Mallards this time . There it stayed for a while , before flying over the spit and landing somewhere beyond on the bank of the East Lake . Not awild bird in all probability , but probably the only Ibis that I will ever see in the area . The only other interest found was a nice specimen of Shaggy Ink Cap or Lawyer's Wig / Coprinus

comatus , along the track on the way back to the car park .
Arriving home , Carol told me that she had two male Blackcap fighting over the Callicarpa berries whilst I was out , meaning with the female that came at the weekend , we now have three in the

garden . One of the males was back tucking in when I had a look . I mentioned it would be nice to have had some sun for the shot , only for Carol to inform me that she had two hours in the garden in unbroken sunshine whilst I was out .