Blenheim Palace is about 45 minutes from home and for a while I've known that you don't have to go in the tourist entrance in order to have access around the park and lake as there are some public access points. However, I hadn't known exactly where to go until I was speaking to one of the birders whilst waiting for the wryneck at Lark Hill earlier in this week and asked him. I was interested to find out on this occasion due to the presence of a purple heron on the main island in the lake in front of Blenheim Palace which was a bird I also hadn't seen before.
It was another fine sunny day today so after lunch I thought I'd see if I could work out where exactly to go; even I didn't see the heron it would doubtless be a pleasant walk around the lake and parkland. I'd heard there were also some juvenile cattle egrets that gave good views.
I arrived at Woodstock where Blenheim is located and after finding a place to park in a side street, I walked down to the A44 which I crossed and passed through a pale green painted wooden gate which looked as if it was leading to a dwelling but in fact went down a small drive and then opened through another gate onto the parkland.
I knew from reports I'd read, that there would be a good view of the island in the middle of Queen Pool where the purple heron was often found, by standing on the Grand Bridge in front of the Palace which divides this lake from the Great Lake , so made my way around the lake as far as this bridge As I expected there were a couple of birders/photographers there already looking over the bridge and they informed me the heron had been seen at 8. 30 that morning but not since then, and they weren't exactly sure if it was still on the island or somewhere else in the reeds.
I could see the juvenile cattle egrets on the grass by the lake and while I watched they flew across in front of the bridge and around the side of some trees out of sight.
An hour passed with no heron seen so I decided to walk around over the bridge and see if I could see the cattle egrets which I found preening themselves perched in one of the trees. There was a still a good view of the island from here so I decided it was worth waiting a bit longer. The other photographers also had decided to change their location too and one of them took his tripod further round the lake.
Suddenly there was a shout.. 'It's flying' and sure enough the heron flew up from the reeds where the photographer was and made for the island where it perched in a fir tree for possibly five to ten minutes giving clear but distant views. This was about the best we could have hoped for! Then it flew off to the left, circled around and passed over our heads to the lake on the other side of bridge and was lost to sight.
I was pleased to have seen another 'lifer' and also that I knew where to go when the next rarity was reported at Blenheim!
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