Glossy Ibis: For the first time in a long time high pressure dominated and the thick blanket of clouds departed leaving behind wall to wall blue skies. So having made plans to head out with Gary Edwards we started the morning at Moore Nature Reserve before heading down the road to Denbighshire for the glossy.
When we arrived the bird was no longer at Rhuddlan Nature Reserve and was foraging on the fields opposite. It was great to see it up close, watching it using its long, curved bill to probe into shallow water, wet mud to detect and seize worms and other invertebrates.
Glossy ibis are migratory with the majority European birds winter in Africa. Birds from other populations may disperse widely outside the breeding season. While generally declining in Europe it has recently established a breeding colony in Southern Spain. It is a rare vagrant to the UK.
However they numbers are increasing and even back in 2014, a pair attempted to breed in Lincolnshire, the first such attempt in Britain and the first successful breeding in Britain was a pair which fledged one young in Cambridgeshire in 2022.
