If it's meant to be

Off to Elmely Marshes, to hopefully get a lifetime tick of a Purple Heron. This requires a trip round the M25 and crossing the QEII Bridge, so not exactly a fun journey, and certainly one with a high potential for things to go wrong....

Left at 9:00, so took the back roads to the motorway, only to discover one was closed! As we were diverted I asked Mrs L if it would be better to join at Potters Bar - "Oh Yes" she says, so we head off that way - ten minutes later "Oh No" she says "I forgot we were going that way round the M25". We continued and joined the M25 at the wrong junction - "Oh No" I say as the traffic is at a complete standstill. An hour later we get off at the junction we should have joined at with the "problem" still a couple of junctions away.

We parked up at Rye Meads, a reserve that's 20 minutes away for us at 10:50 a wander round there with good views of Green Sandpiper & Common Terns helped us chill a little and by 12:30 we decided to have another go at getting to Elmley joining beyond the earlier problem. This time we hit heavy traffic at Harlow. Came to a standstill as there was an accident by J28 and eventually got to the road works between J29 and J30 which was stop start, but at times actually got up to crawling pace. At 14:30 we finally arrived at Elmley.

Unlike Monday's White-winged Black Tern, today's target wasn't going to be sitting out in the open, Purple Herons are secretive birds of reed beds, probably best seen when flying from one bed to another. We knew the area where it had been reported, so we parked up, had our sarnies and waited. Then the farmer drove past on his quad bike, the heron flew up and I saw it fly into another bed of reeds, unfortunately Mrs L didn't. We chatted to the farmer and then drove back down the track behind the farmer towards where we now knew the heron to be - again as the farmer passed the heron took to the air, but this time landed fairly close by the road in the open, where it posed for a couple of minutes before flying off out of sight.

If it's meant to be, it's meant to be! The trials and tribulations of the M25 proved worth it, in fact if we'd arrived four hours earlier we probably wouldn't have seen it.