To add to what others have written -- As well as the Little Bittern and the confusing egrets, at around lunchtime I was the last of the morning crowd there and took a parting look from Bittern hide to check the Chestnut Teal for photographability. There were two or three Latham’s Snipe on the long island and shoreline in front of Ardea, and the BT Native Hen was now foraging on the island. Then the two Intermediate Egrets landed close by. Or not, as it turned out.
The egret problem was the opposite of the one Geoffrey describes. The egrets flew in as a pair and both looked like Intermediates – ‘dainty’ with shorter necks. But one of them was foxing by fluffing its feathers and holding its neck in – it turned out that the ‘pair’ was one of each. Below shows the transition of the Great Egret. The other bird was definitely an Intermediate, a fact that helped support my initial wrong impression. They landed on opposite sides of the island so size comparison wasn’t obvious.
Great Egret
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The real Intermediate Egret
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