This posting is by a
guest-blogger. It’s something of a
scoop. She can introduce herself.
M
Allow me to introduce
myself. I’m Greta Grett and I was
hatched earlier this year on Shapwick Heath in Somerset, England. I have two siblings, Vinny Grett and Baby
Grett. Our parents both came from France
and Maman was quite well-known even
before we were born.
She was given some bling (coloured
rings for her legs) whilst she was still a nestling at Besné in Loire
Atlantique, France. The gift was from
the lovely people at the National Centre of Scientific Research at the
University of Rennes 1. Someone called
Loïc Marion was in charge of
it all. That was on the 6th May
2009. Before she was 1, she was in
England and checking out the famous Somerset Levels. She kept returning there, but travelled up
and down the country for a while before settling. She was seen (and often photographed) in
several locations. Here’s a list that my
photographer-sponsor has put together for me:
- Brockholes Wetland LWT, Lancashire (25th September 2009)
- Crossens Outer Marsh, Merseyside (8th to 13th November 2009 and between 13th & 28th December 2009)
- Churchtown Moss, Lancashire on 29th December 2009 and 8th January 2010)
- Marshside RSPB, Merseyside (1st and 20th January 2010)
- Near Cardiff (22nd to 23rd January 2010)
- Ashleworth Ham, Gloucester (17th to 19th March 2010)
- Slimbridge, Gloucester (24th and 29th March 2010)
For the Gloucestershire locations there are some photographs at www.birder.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk.
(Just search the dates)
There was an unconfirmed report
that Maman had been seen as far north
as Morecambe Bay. It’s possible, but I
doubt that she ventured much further than the Ribble estuary. I’ve been told that, once you reach
Southport, you have reached a coastline unshielded from the NW wind. When it blows, the humans reckon that even
another overcoat makes little difference!
Eventually she decided to make
Somerset her more permanent home and was seen more frequently on the
Levels. There were now others in that
area including one of her siblings. Here
are some photographs taken in October 2011. At that time there were 5 Great Egrets in the
general Shapwick area.
 |
| Maman! |
When we three little ‘uns were
still eggs earlier this year, we all became very famous. We were the first of our kind known to have
been bred in England.
I don’t really know much about
the rest of the family. My name is
pretty much descriptive. Vinny’s name,
I’m told, is some sort of in-joke between my parents. A problem is, though, that some of the less
couth local bird species here associate it with a Dorset cartoon character
(Dorset Vinny), who is usually shown as a bit of what they call here a thicko.
He’s not very happy about it, but he’s bigger than they are, so he’ll be OK. Baby was the last to hatch and he’s still
playing catch-up. Here’s a picture of
him above the nest taken after Vinny and I had started fending more for
ourselves. I think he was hoping Papa or Maman might bring him some food.
I heard my parents talking about
family back in France and saying something that sounded like ‘Granny Grett’. I thought at first they were speaking of one
of my grandmothers, but it turns out that the whole family is referred to in
France as something sounding rather like that. [Ed. la grande aigrette] I’d
misheard. It was windy in the reed-bed
that day and it gets a bit noisy there.
A problem for photographers
and bird-watchers is that none of us have been issued with any bling by
those kind people from Natural England.
You just can’t tell who is who.
What I can reveal is that
mother’s sibling in Somerset has just got a family, too. I have cousins. (Sorry to have to refer to this relative as
‘mother’s sibling’, but I honestly don’t know if it’s an uncle or an aunt.) That nest had been kept secret after all the
media attention we got.
I’m going to have to close this
blog very soon. I have to go to
school. Yes! We have special training courses, you
know. You didn’t? Come on now, you bird-watchers and
-photographers! You know when the birds
start coming nearer to you, but always put a twig or a leaf in front of their
faces, or always sit with their backs to you?
Don’t tell me you thought this all happened by chance. Do me a favour! We’re trained and when we pass we get a BWPF
(Bird-Watchers and -Photographers Frustration) Diploma. Maybe I shouldn’t be telling you this, but
one of the Great Egret tutors taught us a neat trick last week. Prof
had been talking to the Royal Navy about the missile countermeasures that they
deploy on planes and helicopters if they think that an enemy is trying to lock
a heat-seeking missile onto them. RNAS
Yeovilton is not too far away. Anyway,
the principle has been adopted by the greater Grett family.
The demonstration was awesome. The take-off was just in front of two
bird-photographers and crossing from their left to right. Up went the big lenses, the images
stabilisers kicked in, the autofocuses started hunting. Then!
Defecation on a grand scale, but NOT a long squirt like those local Grey
Herons do. No. This was a massive cone-shaped deployment of
high-saturation, evenly spread, white globules.
Formidable!!! (as Maman would say) One of the photographers was my favourite
photographer and he was heard insisting that his autofocus-tracking ‘grabbed’
the discharge and left the bird out of focus.
If you were wondering why he hasn’t posted any pics of this fly-past,
you now know why. I really enjoyed that
lesson. It’s the best we’ve had so far.
The humans got these pictures
that day.
Language isn’t a problem. Although both my parents are French, they do
speak good English. Lots of migrant
birds come here, too, and my photographer-sponsor has kindly given me a useful link.
http://www.bavarianbirds.net/index_e.html
http://www.bavarianbirds.net/index_e.html
It's a German site, but there is (some) English, French, German and Spanish available. You type the name of the bird into the box next to a button marked übersetzen (translate) and click on the button. Immediately, you get a translation into all these languages plus the scientific name.
Finally, there's a picture of one of the family included in another blog. It was taken a few weeks before the blog was written. Take a look at:
Most of the data in Greta’s blog
are correct and have been verified, but she wasn’t going to let any of the
facts, or lack of facts, spoil a good story.
M
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