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A Weekend Playing Away !!
Tony J Morris, with photographs by Andy Deighton and Pete Wragg.

The weekend of 19th-20th July 2003 saw Sheffield birders scooting around the southern end of Yorkshire. With nothing much available within the SBSG recording there were one or two birds within a couple of hours drive and it turned out to be a decent July weekend.

Star of the show was a juvenile Great Spotted Cuckoo at Spurn. Not too many birds would be more welcome in juvenile plumage than adult, but this must surely be one of them. Certainly a good number of Sheffield birders were seen taking advantage of this fairly approachable individual, which gave cracking views of it's rusty-brown hands, black cap, yellow throat and breast, and heavily spotted upper-parts, both in flight and whilst perched. These three photographs were all taken by Pete Wragg.

Closer to home [but not close enough], were a couple of Great White Egrets at Denaby Ings. One of the birds was bedecked with metal and plastic jewelry: a metal ring on the right leg and orange over green over blue plastic on the left leg; all above the knee. No doubt this will be traceable, and hopefully to a continental ringing scheme. I would think that the presence of a metal ring and such an elaborate configuration of colour rings must surely indicate a wild origin for these birds. The Egrets were photographed by Andy Deighton.

These Egrets were, oh so close, yet, oh so far, from the SBSG recording area, probably just 2 or 3 hundred metres outside.
So who was that seen doing the stake-out at Old Denaby Flash?

Just out of interest and conversely, a totally un-obtainable bird from the same weekend, was seen at Carr Vale NR in NE Derbyshire. What was at first identified as a fly-through Montagu's Harrier, was later mooted to be a possible fly-through Pallid Harrier.

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Information provided by Tony J. Morris
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